A new chapter for youth health in East Ōtautahi.

A look at what's coming for Te Tahi Youth at Eastgate, creating more capacity to provide free healthcare and support to rangatahi in East Ōtautahi.

We're creating more room to provide free healthcare and support to the young people and whānau who need it.

Work is underway on our new fit-out at Eastgate Mall, creating four additional medical consultation rooms alongside dedicated areas for counselling and social work. It's a practical investment in our ability to reach more rangatahi in a part of Ōtautahi where the need continues to grow.

More young people need support. We need more room to provide it. That simple reality is behind a major project now underway at Eastgate Mall.

Te Tahi Youth is developing a new fit-out that will create four additional medical consultation rooms, alongside dedicated areas for counselling and social work. It's not simply about having more rooms. It's about being able to say yes to more young people.

Our existing services are busy. Last year, more than 1,700 young people accessed Te Tahi Youth across our services, and demand for our clinical care continues to grow. At the moment, we have to turn away a significant number of young people seeking access to our medical services because we don't have the capacity to see them.

The new fit-out will help change that.

Why East Christchurch?

Eastgate is an important location for Te Tahi Youth.

Around 40% of the young people we support live in East Christchurch, and the location provides easy access to public transport, schools and parking. Being within a busy shopping centre also offers something else that matters to young people: anonymity. For a young person who might feel uncomfortable walking into a traditional medical centre, being able to access care somewhere that already feels familiar can remove one more barrier.

The new fit-out will give our clinical team more capacity while also bringing other parts of our integrated model closer together. Young people accessing healthcare may also need counselling, social work or other support. Having these services working alongside each other means they can be connected to the right support without having to navigate everything alone.

A project built around young people. The design has been shaped around how we work.

There will be four medical consultation rooms, with dedicated areas for our counselling and social work teams. The additional capacity will allow us to support more young people while creating an environment that feels welcoming, safe and appropriate for rangatahi.

For our team, it represents an opportunity to do more of what we already know makes a difference: meeting young people where they are and providing connected support around them.

Construction is now underway, with the fit-out expected to be completed later this year.

But there is still work to do.

Help us get there

We are still raising funds to complete the project and bring the new fit-out to life. Every contribution helps us fund the practical things needed to create these additional clinical and support areas, from the fit-out itself through to the equipment that will make the rooms ready for young people.

If you'd like to see more of the plans, understand what we're raising funds for or make a contribution, you can visit our Eastgate project page.

[See the project and help us complete the fit-out →]