Pan African Community Centre

Understanding the need for support and drawing on their backgrounds in health, education and community support, community leader and Founder Ketina Chivasa, with former trustee Ben Harris supporting in an advisory and administrative capacity, began the New Zealand Pan-African Broadcasting Corporation Charitable Trust (NZPABC) work in 2019 as a weekly broadcast on the health and community challenges faced by migrants.

On-air conversations quickly revealed how many people were struggling with racism, exclusion and confusing systems, often in isolation.

In 2021, that vision took physical form as the Pan African Community Centre in New Lynn, located at 3131 Great North Road (opposite Bunnings).

Click here for the Pan African website

"I never believed I would see so many different ages and ethnic groups all dancing and laughing together."

Impact

Participation

PACC has helped the community it serves to go from surviving to thriving, with many of its programmes expanding beyond African migrants to include a range of age groups and ethnicities in the wider New Lynn community. Indicators of impact include hundreds of community members engaging with the centre each year across programmes including homework clubs, youth activities, cultural events, workshops and recreational activities.

Confidence and navigation

Increased confidence in navigating life in Aotearoa. Community members are better able to understand their legal rights, access health services, avoid exploitation, and engage with police and other institutions through PACC-facilitated sessions.

Qualitative shifts in belonging and social connection

Internally, PACC’s emphasis on integrity and accountability means it also tracks participation numbers, diversity of attendees, programme reach and financial sustainability.

Continued growth

Growing numbers of people engage with the centre across different programmes, homework clubs, holiday programmes, sports teams, recreational activities, cultural events, music lessons and workshops.

Influence

PACC's story has already influenced funders, partners and systems.

External recognition

Foundation North has recognised the centre as an example of “bridging continents and building community,” highlighting its role in strengthening belonging and wellbeing across diverse communities.

Local impact and belonging

Locally, its presence has changed how African migrants and other ethnic minorities in the Whau Local Board and surrounding areas experience a community centre. It's a place they belong rather than a service they visit briefly.

Building trust in civic participation
The centre's approach to building trust in civic processes has also begun to shift mindsets. Supported by familiar faces and culturally safe explanations, community members are learning to trust engagement with officials. In return, the combination of storytelling, advocacy and practice is helping to change how institutions see African communities, recognising them as partners with their own voice, leadership and solutions.

System influence and engagement

The Pan African Community Centre also contributes beyond programme delivery by shaping how systems understand, engage with, and respond to culturally diverse communities. Through direct engagement with agencies including New Zealand Police, the Human Rights Commission, NetSafe, and the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the Centre brings lived experience into spaces where policy, frameworks and responses are being discussed and applied.

This includes raising real-time challenges, providing structured feedback on system gaps, and contributing case-based insights into areas such as consent, cultural dynamics, and accountability pathways. These engagements are grounded in lived experience, real cases, and direct community interaction, often identifying gaps that are not visible through standard reporting or consultation processes.

Bridging communities and systems
As a recognised and trusted community voting space in partnership with the Electoral Commission, the Centre plays a critical role in building trust between communities and government systems. For many, this is not just about voting - it is about rebuilding confidence in systems, understanding rights and responsibilities, and moving from hesitation to active participation in civic life.

From engagement to co-design
A key pattern identified through this work is the gap between engagement and co-design where communities are consulted but not meaningfully involved in shaping systems. The Centre’s approach addresses this by bringing forward unfiltered community realities while also proposing practical, system-level solutions.

This positions the Centre not only as a place of belonging, but as a trusted bridge between communities and systems, supporting both participation and systemic understanding.

Organisation

The Pan African Community Centre in New Lynn grew out of NZPABC, established to support African migrants navigating life in Aotearoa. It exists as a place of belonging for African communities, where cultures, languages and identities are centred and celebrated.

At the same time, the Centre operates as a community-led, multi-ethnic hub - open to all and widely used by diverse groups across the community.

While grounded in its African identity, it has evolved into a shared space where people from different backgrounds connect, learn and access support.

PACC aims to,

Provide a safe place for African migrants and other ethnic minorities to stand, speak and be heard without retribution.
Transform the experience of being labelled "other" into a strong, positive sense of being "of Africa" while also belonging fully in Aotearoa.
Equip people with the skills, confidence and connections to participate in civic and community life - from understanding tenancy rights to enrolling to vote.
Challenge systems that erase or marginalise African communities by presenting funders, policy makers and the wider public with a clear, values‑driven narrative backed by lived experience and practice.

PACC's chosen storytelling approach intentionally centres true stories, direct quotes and everyday moments.

Purpose

Context and challenges

Many migrants have left behind conflict, instability and economic hardship, only to encounter a new set of challenges on arrival: racism and exclusion in schools, precarious work, exploitation, and a deep mistrust of systems.

Invisibility and identity

For Ketina, a tick box on a Ministry of Health form summed up this experience: "NZ European, Pākehā, Māori, Pasifika… Other." With 54 countries in Africa, seeing these nations, cultures and languages collapsed into "other" made it feel that African lives and identities were peripheral and insignificant. Many migrants, wary of making a fuss, accept this quietly, which reinforces a sense of invisibility and powerlessness.

System-level gaps

This experience reflects broader system-level challenges. Engagement with communities often happens at the delivery stage rather than at the planning stage, with limited coordination across agencies and over-reliance on a small number of voices to represent highly diverse communities. These gaps can result in filtered narratives, reduced trust, and barriers to meaningful participation.

PACC seeks to change the way African migrants understand and interact with systems so that the next generation of African New Zealanders has a different experience.

What makes it stand out

PACC’s story is compelling because it begins with strong personal commitment and belief in the community. The Board privately covered the rent for the centre for the first six months, demonstrating a shared commitment to the vision before external support was secured.

“You have to believe in what you’re doing and you have to be prepared to give up something. Funders don’t just give you money, you have to prove your case.”

Initially "for Africans, by Africans", the centre offers a safe place where African cultures, languages and identities are normalised and lived experience is treated as expertise. Because that belonging is real, it has begun to draw others in, and Samoan, Korean and other community groups now also recognise the centre as home.

Within New Lynn, PACC is a space where children of many backgrounds join homework clubs, where families gather for African Movie Fridays, and where regular community events and running-related activities bring people together across communities. Supported by partners like Running Events, the centre encourages African migrants and others to experience parks, paths and waterfronts across the city as places they belong and can thrive in.

Co-design

PACC's story has been co‑designed from the ground up by people who live the issues every day. Ketina brings her lived experience as a girl child who had to fight to stay in school, a migrant nurse navigating bonded visas and hospital hierarchies, and a mother watching her children face racism in New Zealand classrooms.

The work began with conversation, initially through weekly broadcasts, alongside a systems perspective that helped shape how these issues were understood and responded to. Since opening the community centre in 2021, the conversation has expanded to churches, running events, sports fields, and at kitchen tables.

By providing a safe and trusted space, PACC has enabled community members to name their challenges. These include fear of authorities and police, confusion about laws, concern about their children’s education, and not knowing how to access support without being judged or dismissed.

The Centre is built on lived experience. Programmes are shaped directly by what the community expresses as needed not pre-designed solutions. Through ongoing engagement from conversations at the Centre to outreach in communities key challenges are continuously identified, including fear of systems, lack of information, and barriers to accessing services.

In response, the Centre delivers practical, accessible programmes that address these realities from legal rights education to women’s health workshops, homework clubs and youth activities.

This approach also extends to partnerships. PACC collaborates with churches, health professionals, NZ Police, local organisations and other migrant groups in a values-aligned way, with integrity and accountability at the centre.

Why
it works

In communities where relationships with officials and institutions have often been extractive or punitive, PACC offers something different: people are invited to belong first, to be seen and known, and only then to step into systems like health, education or voting with support at their side. The centre acts as a bridge between institutions and people who have good reason to mistrust authority.

For example, during election periods, Ketina goes out into the community, engaging directly with individuals about why voting matters, addressing fears shaped by past experiences, and supporting people to enrol and participate in a way that is independent of political or religious alignment.

Key ingredients:

Values‑driven leadership:Integrity, accountability and a fierce sense of justice are used to call for more equitable systems and civic experiences.
Lived experience as a design tool:Programmes and events arise from what people say they need – a place to do homework, a safe way to learn about NZ law, somewhere to dance, watch films and eat together – rather than from pre‑set templates. "We're looking at consistency rather than reinforcing cycles."
Low-barrier, engaging invitations: Regular weekly activities, food events and family-friendly gatherings bring people in without requiring perfect English, prior knowledge or confidence.
Movement as connection: Walking and running groups, and links to local events, help people build confidence in public spaces, strengthen social ties and see themselves as part of the wider community, not on the margins.

"What makes a good story? It's one that's true. You don't have to defend a true story."

Challenges and key lessons learnt

Self‑funding and personal risk

The Board privately covered the first six months’ rent, demonstrating strong belief in the kaupapa while also highlighting the need to move towards shared, multi-year and diversified funding.

Operating with limited resources

Delivering significant community outcomes with limited resources, and operating as an independent hub with higher operational costs, has required careful prioritisation and strong community support.

Finding sustainable funding models

Relational, high-trust work is not always easy to capture through simple outputs. The Centre has had to pair true stories with clear data to demonstrate impact and make the case for ongoing investment.

Bridging community and system realities

Bridging the gap between community needs and system structures remains an ongoing challenge, particularly where engagement does not fully reflect lived experience.

"When people understand their rights and feel supported, they move from surviving to actively participating in society."