Our Staff

Vision

To support young parents to have, keep and parent their children.

Philosophy

To support young parents to live a life of confident hope and create a positive future for their children.

As long as it takes....

Olivia Marshall BSW
​Social Worker

​Kia Ora everyone,
My name is Liv and I am the social worker for Rachel’s House Trust. I have a passion for working with mothers of all ages. As a mother myself to two beautiful daughters I am aware of some of the challenges we as new parents face. My role is to support, advocate and empower parent’s and whanau to reach their potential. I have also completed my training as a peer supporter for breastfeeding. I love expanding my knowledge of child development in my spare time as well as  enjoying family adventures with my husband and children. 

​Linda Bruce BtchLn (Primary)
​Groups Coordinator &
Workshops Co-Facilitator

I live in Amberley with my partner and six and a half year old, cheeky son Eli and have lived out here for 6 years, after moving back to Canterbury from Auckland. I grew up in Christchurch, though I was happy to stay away from the busy cities and live a quieter life out here in North Canterbury. My background has been in teaching, community support work and as a personal assistant.
 
It has been a true blessing being a part of Rachel’s House for the past six years. From the very beginning, being supported myself by Rachel’s House, with my then five-month-old son, to now having the pleasure to support our mums through the coordination of the groups we have here. These include Mums & Minis-our playgroup, Explore Galore- learning play activities to do with their children, Refresh- a small group to connect and gain confidence, and our Parenting, Personal development and Values Workshops.
 
My desire is to be there for our families, to listen, to connect, to support and help them to grow and move forward in their life journey. I aim to boost the self-confidence of the mums that I work with by showing that I truly care, and by helping them realise their true value.
 
I myself have had some big challenges during my life and especially the early years of my son's life, experiencing mental health difficulties, including postnatal depression, trauma, feelings of judgment, and loss of self-worth. Since then I have always wanted to use my experience to give our mums hope, be somebody they can trust and for them to know that I really do understand what they are going through.
 
Rachel’s House is a huge part of my heart and always will be.

​Lisa Jackson
(B.COUNS. NZAC PROVISIONAL MEMBER)

​I moved to New Zealand in 2011 with my husband and two teenage girls. Having worked as a support worker in the community both in the UK and now in New Zealand I decided to return to education and gained my degree in counselling two years ago.  It was during my training I came across Rachel's House and the fantastic services they offer to parents in the community, from that point I was keen to also be able to work alongside these parents. Having raised two children myself, I have personal experience of the difficulties parenting brings and the emotional rollercoaster involved. Now as a grandmother I am reminded again of the challenges, joys and stresses.
My role at Rachel's House is to offer support through individual counselling and facilitate the Rachel's House workshops. My passion is to support parents through a non-judgmental therapeutic relationship. It is an honour to walk alongside parents as they navigate parenthood, life’s challenges, and any personal growth they wish to do.

Volunteers

The Trust’s greatest resource is our volunteer base of well-trained individuals from the community who give their time, experience and skills to young families.  Rachel’s House Trust currently has a pool of 18 volunteers who are counsellors, preschool teachers, primary teachers, nurses, social services graduates and midwives.
The volunteers support clients, provide one on one mentoring and participate in a fortnightly playgroup and connect group and help with sorting, cleaning and storing baby items. Our volunteers give hours of their own time each month. That is 1428 hours volunteered this year! Our paid staff also volunteer their time above their paid hours, as the service is growing.
We appreciate every moment, every hour that our faithful volunteers give.
​THANK YOU!

Board

The Rachel's House Trust Board is made up of skilled individuals who have backgrounds in social justice, teaching, training, local council involvement and the NGO sector.

Sandra Heerink
Chair Person
Hi my name is Sandra and I am the chair person on the Rachels House Trust Board. I have lived in Rangiora for the last fifteen years with my husband Mike and our now 4 adult children.
My passion and heart is for social justice, social change and to support people in their own personal growth. This is a role that I am able to complete along side my role with the community development work I do for the Hope Community Trust. 
I truly believe all children deserve the very best start in life despite their circumstances and that there is always hope.
God Bless,
Sandra

Georgina Iijima
Trustee
​My name is Georgina, I’m married to Tomohiro and we have a daughter, Aki and son Eikou. We are also grandparents to Aki's daughter Micah. The majority of my working life was spent in Japan covering various roles while working with Youth With a Mission. I took part in setting up an NGO organization that supported young women in Japan who found themselves with unplanned pregnancies in a society that did not accept single parent hood. Unplanned pregnancies were seen as bringing great shame to the entire family and would more often than not subject the woman to an entire life of rejection and poverty. Therefore the majority of unplanned pregnancies in single women ended in either abortion or abandonment. That organization succeeded in saving the lives of hundreds of children by offering the alternative of adoption, in the process saving the lives of their mothers. My primary role was in supporting the young mothers as the made the loving decisions for their children.
Since returning to New Zealand I retrained in administration, which is how I became involved with Rachel's House Trust Board of Trustees and as my heart is still to see the very best for children and their entire whānau I am excited to move into this position of trustee to offer my skills to support the work of this awesome team.


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Donna McCormick
Trustee
My name is Donna and I’ve lived in North Canterbury all my life and in Rangiora for the past 35 years.  With my husband Kevin, we have 4 adult children and 10 grandchildren.  For over 40 years we have fostered many children from babies to teenagers.  During this time we gained Residential Social Work Certificates and had training in many areas relating to the many and varied ways children come to need foster care and helping the children to move on in the circumstances that have brought them into care.
For this reason, I totally support the work being carried out by Rachel’s House Trust in supporting mothers to be able to care for and value their children in their own homes and be supported by their mentors or other support workers on an individual basis.
I’m looking forward to moving forward with the Boards plan to have an actual house in the future as I see the need for emergency accommodation for Mums/families in crises situations and also have the opportunity to support and teach parents skills that will help keep their children with them at these times.

Dr. Heather Parker
(BScHons, PhD)
Trustee/Funding Administrator
Hi my name is Heather.  I have a heart for the work of Rachel’s House Trust as a result of my own personal experience when I became pregnant shortly after leaving school at the age of 16.  My family and I were overseas at the time and I remained overseas while my family returned home.  It was a lonely and difficult time being a young mum away from my parents and friends.  If I could have had access to an organisation like Rachel’s House Trust it would have been such a help. 
I have two sons, now adults, whom I raised single-handedly.  When my boys started school, I had the opportunity to continue my education.  I began by studying horticulture and worked in the industry for several years.  Then at the age of 34, I started University and obtained an Honours degree in Science and a PhD in Health Sciences.  For the last 13 years I have worked as a Medical Research Scientist at the University of Otago Christchurch.  I have experienced first hand how education opens doors and lifts people out of poverty.  Rachel’s House Trust seeks to help young parents not only with parenting skills and practical support but also with encouragement and support for them to return to education.  I believe this is a very important aspect of the work of Rachel’s House Trust.
I have been living in North Canterbury since 2012 and joined the Board of Trustee’s at Rachel’s House Trust late 2020.  I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of Rachel’s House Trust.
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