Whanganui centre for children morphs into ambitious trust

Jane Bilderbeck and Marie Butturini are the main drivers of the new Whanganui Advocacy and Support Trust. Photo / Laurel Stowell

A childcare and education centre in Whanganui East is morphing into what owner Marie Butturini always wanted - a centre for the whole community.

The Whanganui Advocacy and Support Trust has joined Love and Learn Care and Education in a large complex in Hakeke St. It hosts many children, a library hub and a community garden, and has applied to the Education Ministry to add a teen parent unit.

The early childhood education centre can take 15 children under two and 40 who are over two, as well as 30 aged 5-14 for after school care and education.

It's an enviroschool. You won't find any shiny plastic toys, but you will find lots of outdoor space, animals, natural materials and a volunteer called Paul Thompson who comes in several times a week to cook with the children.

Children have an afternoon nap under a shady tree at Love and Learn Care and Education. Photo / Laurel Stowell

"We want the children to use their brains. They come up with incredible stuff. Our thinking is around promoting children that are problem solvers," Butturini said.

The self-service library hub is the first in of its kind in a Whanganui suburb, opened on January 24 and is staffed by volunteers.

Love and Learn Care and Education opened in 2015, when Butturini found the ideal setting for it in a large newish building in Whanganui's Hakeke St.

She's qualified in early childhood education and special education and has worked in the field for years in both Australia and Palmerston North.

Children at Love and Learn have a large outdoor area and material to build with. Photo / Laurel Stowell

Right from the start she wanted her own centre, providing top early childhood education for families of any income level. And she sees early childhood education as a catalyst for broader change.

She's a big fan of Te Aroha Noa Community Services, in Palmerston North, which combines education at all levels with social services.

"I just thought they were fantastic," she said.

She and her builder husband Brendon looked for a suitable venue. They found the former New Zealand Railways administration education complex in Whanganui East. From the air the sprawling buildings form the shape of a train wreck.

After the nearby Railway Workshops closed, the buildings were used by Whanganui's polytechnic, as classrooms. The Butterinis initially leased a quarter of the 0.8ha property, for the centre.

As she got to know the childrens' families, Butturini realised many of them had unmet needs and goals they needed help to pursue.

"We built the relationship with these people, and they started talking to us. It took a year for the parents or whānau to really open up to us."

She tried to manage these extra needs within the centre, by helping people get into study, or directing them to agencies like Work & Income or Jigsaw Whanganui.

One little boy needed extra help, and in late 2017 Jane Bilderbeck started working part-time with him, as a volunteer. She had previously done administration for Whanganui Police, and is a counsellor for the Youth Services Trust.

Around that time the Butterinis also bought the whole complex - all the interconnected buildings and the land. The owner was Martin Wu. He was training to be a Catholic priest and living in Auckland, and had bought the complex for $320,000 as an investment for his family.

The asking price was more than that, but Butturini still thought it seemed like a bargain.

After the purchase she could do what she liked at the place.

"What we know is that helping the children is excellent, but if we really want to make a change we need to support the whole whānau," she said, and formed the Whanganui Advocacy and Support Trust.

Bilderbeck is its part-time administrator and also does whānau liaison for Love and Learn. The trust will be looking to fund a wage for her this year.

Making part of the building available for a library hub fitted the community centre goal.

The buildings also host Pacific Island events, Mike Paki's te reo Māori classes, parenting courses run by Jigsaw Whanganui and training for early childhood teachers.

The trust has applied to the Education Ministry to host a teen parent unit, with Whanganui City College as the partner school. The unit would keep young parents in town, Butturini said.

"We have had a high percentage of young parents through the centre and we have travelled to other teen parent units in the district who have our Whanganui girls over there - which means they have to leave their family."

At the other end of human life, the trust wants to reach out to older people.

"We had our first elderly person come in last week, just for company. I was super excited about that," Bilderbeck said.

Centre children also visit rest homes, and rest homes can now come to the library.

The children have a vegetable garden and chickens at their end of the complex, but there's no public access to it. The trust has started a community garden, with help from Wanganui Garden Centre. Extra produce will be given away.

It doesn't aim to take over the work of other agencies, Butturini said.

"What we try to do is work with agencies that are already there, connecting families with them. If that doesn't work we go back to them and say 'Why isn't it working?' We don't take 'no' for an answer."

To find out more, see Love and Learn Care and Education on Facebook.