Level 4, 39 Webb Street
Mount Cook 6011
Mon - Fri: 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Office hours
+64 4 801 5812
Office phone
OUR VISION
Our Vision
New Zealanders from refugee backgrounds participating fully in life in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Our Principles
Nothing about us without us.
People from refugee-backgrounds should be involved in all stages when policies and services are being developed. Their involvement should be meaningful and respectful of them as the people who will be most affected by those policies and services.
Focus on strengths not weaknesses.
Former refugees bring knowledge, experience and many diverse skills to Aotearoa New Zealand. They have much to contribute.
A human rights approach.
instead of a welfare approach should be the basis for policy development and service delivery.
A shared voice is a strong voice.
While we acknowledge the differences and the importance of independence, we also recognise the great value of coming together to work on issues of common concern.
Our Philosophy
Being a rights-based organisation means that our strategic outcomes, policies, and the way we work with communities and other agencies are all underpinned by human rights. We begin any new initiative by ensuring that the way we will conduct our work is rights-based. We do this by completing the ChangeMakers’ rights-based programming checklist. As well as being an effective planning tool, this template is a good reminder of the underlying principles that form the basis of rights-based approaches:
We also developed A Human Rights-Based Approach to Refugee Resettlement, which considers what a human rights-based approach to resettlement might look like in key areas.
Our Story
The need for a strong collective voice within resettled communities was first identified in 2001. From 2001 to 2006 a group of dedicated leaders met on a regular basis to ensure that people from a refugee background had input into resettlement policy development and service delivery. This work was underpinned by the principle: Nothing about us without us. This principle recognises that people from refugee backgrounds have the skills, knowledge, and experience to address resettlement issues. This group of community leaders, facilitated by our Board member Adam Awad, recognised there was a need for a formal organisation to continue this vital work, and created ChangeMakers. ChangeMakers Refugee Forum became an incorporated society and was registered with the Charities Commission in 2006. Since 2006, we have expanded our services from advocating on behalf of refugee background communities, to include research and community development activities. In 2019, we changed our name from ChangeMakers Refugee Forum to ChangeMakers Resettlement Forum, a name which we feel is more representative of the crucial resettlement work we do.