Mike Fowler, Ahmed Tani and Surinder Tandon [pictured above] made a presentation to the City Council on 3 May requesting support for the Multicultural Hub development.

Surinder and Ahmed, who represent our migrant and refugee communities, spoke powerfully to City Councillors as to why refugee and migrant people need this hub.

There is strong support from Council for the hub and they are working with other fund holders to secure funding arrangements. This project sits outside Hagley’s $20.4 million redevelopment and has an estimated cost of $3.5 million. It is proposed to locate the hub on the corner of St Asaph and Stewart Streets.

The hub offers dedicated spaces for education, social and financial well-being capacity building, community strengthening through first language maintenance, as well as a homework centre after school for students from refugee backgrounds drawn from across Christchurch schools. There are flexible office spaces for various agencies from educational, public and civil agencies and sectors.  Workshops to build competencies in working with and understanding Christchurch's culturally and linguistically diverse groups will be run for business and other groups across the city.

The Multicultural Hub is closely linked to Hagley’s mission statement: “Lifelong learning that is accessible to all.” Students from culturally and linguistically diverse communities form a significant part of Hagley’s student population, with students enrolled in a wide range of courses, as well as in community, vocational and academic English language learning programmes. Hagley embraces diverse ethnic communities as a vital part of Hagley, as it has done for 35 years.

Stuff media coverage from Saturday Press 4 May.