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Wesleyhaven Village is a not-for-profit residential aged care facility run by Wesley Community Action in Naenae, Lower Hutt. It provides a 'continuum of aged care' ranging from residents living independently in rental villas to supported rest home care and continuing care in Wesleyhaven's hospital.

The challenge

As the ageing population increases both in New Zealand and across the globe, society is challenged to rethink and redesign how communities support the health and well-being of people as they age.

innovate change worked with Wesley Community Action (WCA) to understand and develop the future of its residential care facility, Wesleyhaven. We worked to identify how Wesleyhaven could become a vibrant community where people of all ages come to live, work and play.

WCA has been in operation for 65 years working to enable a just and caring society by supporting individual, family, community and societal transformation and Wesleyhaven is part of this history. With funding and care needs and norms changing in New Zealand, WCA felt it was time to work differently in this space.

What did we do?

We used our innovative action model to:

  • Generate deep insight about the lived experience of people who live and work at Wesleyhaven
  • Understand the perspectives of people and organisations in the local community and the opportunities that exist for them to be a greater part of a future Wesleyhaven
  • Use a co-design process to identify specific solutions based on the insights and community engagement
  • Prototype leading solutions
  • Refine the leading solutions into a plan for WCA.

In total, our process involved over 382 people from local communities and Wesleyhaven Village.

We created

Insights about Wesleyhaven Village

New Proposals for Wesleyhaven Village (Long form)

Participant Summary Report (short)

Our impact

We have gathered information and tested ideas with a wide range of people using a variety of creative methods to mobilise and hear community voices. This will ensure:

  • The residents, staff, whānau, and the wider Wesleyhaven community are heard and their expertise valued.

  • Design decisions are made from a broad knowledge base including the lived experiences of those who will be most affected by these decisions now, and into the future.

  • The propositions we've proposed (see 'what we've created' below) can help Wesleyhaven to become a vibrant community where people of all ages come to live, work and play.