Story: Disability and disability organisations

Following an appeal from parents, a residential home for people with intellectual disabilities was opened by the state in an old airforce base outside Levin in 1945. Called the Levin Farm and Mental Deficiency Colony it was soon oversubscribed, leading to a major expansion plan in 1953. In 1959 its name was changed to the Levin Hospital and Training School. It trained psychopaedic nurses and, as shown in this 1961 government film clip, provided workplace training for residents. The home was renamed the Kimberley Centre in 1987, but following the 1990s trend for deinstitutionalisation, it closed in 2005.