Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust

We help people who have left the reclusive Gloriavale Community to set up their new lives on the outside. We'd love your support!

Canterbury

Around 30 people per year leave Gloriavale. Some are large families, while others leave as singles. With your support we will help ex-members resettle quickly. Families usually leave the isolated community with little warning, and many under the cover of darkness, with very few personal possessions. Some families leave with more than 10 children. It is our great pleasure to support them to become independent members of society.

The Gloriavale Leavers' Charitable Trust enables us to help with the resettling work in a more cohesive way. We need immediate and ongoing funds to support the families directly and to employ a support worker. Our support worker liaises with the families and other groups & agencies who can meet their practical, financial, emotional, spiritual, and educational needs.

There are high initial costs for resettling families, including clothing, furniture, rental bond, school set-up costs, medical expenses, vehicle purchase, driver's licence costs, counselling etc.

Gloriavale leavers are in a unique category in our country. Once they have left the exclusive community, it's likely they won't be able to make contact with their friends and family who they have left behind. It can be a very difficult transition for them, going from a highly controlling environment, to one where they have to make hundreds of decisions about their lives. The leavers have many similar practical needs that migrants and refugees have, but there are no Government funds available, or programmes which are set up to help them specifically.

The people who leave Gloriavale are grateful to for the help they receive in establishing their new lives and wish to thank the public for their amazing kindness and interest in them. Your donations are wisely used. We need your support to continue the great work that has already been done. Please ask your friends and business contacts if they would consider donating to our Trust.

Paste this link in your browser to see the Trust Manager’s interview with Duncan Garner on the AM Breakfast Show: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/07/what-happens-after-people-leave-gloriavale.html?fbclid=IwAR2A8Fe5tYNUdgZwbNOHPZTxUtugXnadGvFd57qocB964-AY4kLQWxLsJeE

Paste this link into your browser to see a TVNZ Seven Sharp interview from August 2018 with the Trust's Manager Liz Gregory: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/seven-sharp/clips/timaru-couple-providing-first-landing-pad-for-others-who-left-west-coast-s-gloriavale-commune

More about us

The Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust supports people who have left the reclusive Gloriavale Community. We support in practical, financial, spiritual, emotional, legal and educational matters.