ABOUT US

The Champion Centre's core business is to provide early intervention services to infants and young children with disabilities in the Christchurch area of New Zealand. The programme is centre-based meaning that children and families receive most of their service on-site at weekly or fortnightly visits during school terms. The Champion Centre is the largest and longest-running centre-based early intervention centre in the country.

Partially funded by government and in business since the late 1970's it has served approximately 2,000 children to date. Children are referred to the service via a paediatrician who makes a referral to the Early Intervention Coordination Service. This service represents all the early intervention providers in the area and allows offers to be made to families from more than one provider, dependent on capacity in those providers.

The Champion Centre also engages in research in early intervention and offers training to professionals and parents on request.

How to access our service:
All referrals are received through a paediatrician to the Early Intervention Coordination Service or EICS for short.  If a child is not currently under the care of a paediatrician, they should first see their GP who will refer them on to a paediatrician if appropriate.  All paediatricians within the CDHB and Child Specialist Service know the referral process and who to send a referral to.
EICS provides a single point of entry to the range of early intervention services in the Christchurch area and is comprised of CCS Disability Action, The Champion Centre, Conductive Education, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health.