Momenta is a not-for-profit business with over 45 years’ experience supporting people with lived experience of disability.
In 1976, local Rotarians founded Equality BOP, through which people with disabilities were employed to build wooden trays for the burgeoning local kiwifruit industry. Avalon, as it came to be known, grew in to a bustling series of workshops on a rural Te Puna property.
In 1985 a rural property at Gill Lane,Te Puna was purchased and the organisation took on the name of the orchard which was Avalon. The Avalon Training Center was established along with a sheltered workshop which over time transitioned in to a day service in response to Government contracts with the Ministries of Health and Social Development.
However, in the 2000s, the Health and Disability sector began to recognise that people with different abilities wanted and deserved more from life than a daily respite programme.
An intensive financial and service review resulted in a complete redesign of our service model to align with:
The workshops closed in 2015, and Avalon completed an extensive change in management process, that resulted in the service being re-established and relocated in Tauranga central. Avalon’s service model focuses on supporting disadvantaged people, who encounter barriers to inclusion, to live a life of value within their community.
In 2020, with an entirely new focus, Avalon was renamed Momenta. Standing on the shoulders of those community-minded locals from the 1970s, we play our part in shaping our community so that all people belong, are valued and thrive.
With the shift to Momenta, came a revitalization of our services, introducing innovative coaching and connecting programmes. Reflecting on our history and what we hope to achieve in the future, came the need to reconsider who we are, our values and purpose.
