Motivated by the vision to provide positive rehabilitation and community participation in partnership with people who have sustained a brain injury, the Manawatu Stewart Centre works with 16 - 65 year olds to provide a range of rehabilitation services. These encompass social, vocational, fitness, gardening, communication, independence and computer skills. 

Computers play a significant role within the rehabilitation programmes. “Computers can be powerful tools promoting meaningful occupation or compensatory strategies in cognitive rehabilitation for people with brain injury.  There has been encouraging research that computer-based language therapy offers promise in the treatment of communication disability” says Dr Maxine Bevin - Speech Language Therapist.

Computer skills also help ensure clients can work towards obtaining computing qualifications through the local tertiary institution UCOL, which help towards gaining employment and ensuring that clients have the skills to interact with others through online communities.

“One of the software applications we received through TechSoup NZ was Microsoft’s Expression Web 2.0. This will enable our clients to learn the basics of website design so they can construct their own quality website without the need for an in-depth knowledge of HTML” says Terry Lloyd-West - IT coordinator.

“We at the Manawatu Stewart Centre are very grateful to have been recent recipients of Microsoft software through the TechSoup NZ software donation programme. We now have the Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 installed as our file server and it has a lot more functionally than our previous Open Source software option - we are really happy with it”. 

“Couple this with our updated hardware running Office Professional 2007 in our computer suite and we are well placed to stay current with the very latest software applications from Microsoft”.