Our Charitable Work

Keeping Our Community Warm

Established in 1994, CEA has a proud history of keeping families across Canterbury and The West Coast warm and dry. As a charitable trust, we have your interest at heart. We provide subsidised insulation, free curtains and free energy advice for households with (more) assistance for those in need.

By supporting CEA, you are giving back to the community. All our surpluses go into helping local families stay warm, dry and healthy.

Read on to discover what we do, our work in the community, and where your money goes.

Curtain Bank

Our Curtain Bank provides families with free high-quality curtains. Donated curtains are cleaned and backed with thermal lining. People wanting curtains can choose from a range of materials which are made to their specific measurements. We rely heavily on volunteers and donated materials to run this service.

Since 1995, we have provided over 10,000 homes with free curtains. That works out to be over 200,000 square metres of fabric! Which is about one and a third times as big as Eden Park.

Additional funding and surpluses go into purchasing essential supplies and paying utilities. Our Curtain Bank was featured in Stuff, you can read the article here.

Subsidised insulation

We are a registered provider of the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. This government subsidy covers 80% of the total cost of an insulation installation for eligible homes. As a charitable trust, we often top this up to 100%. Providing additional funding ensures every family can live in a warm, dry, and healthy home.

Since 1995, we have insulated nearly 35,000 homes across Canterbury and The West Coast.

We rely on donations and funding to continue this service. Any surpluses from non-subsidised insulation go directly into our funding pool.

Energy advice

Our Energy Advice Service provides independent energy advice and education to individual homeowners, tenants and landlords. Home Energy Checks are the core of our Energy Advice service. We offer independent and free advice that can help reduce power usage, and identify areas of risk. This advice is comprehensive and tailored to the unique circumstances of the home.

We also present to community groups and professionals working with vulnerable people in the community. These presentations offer valuable and free energy advice and are a great way to connect with those in need.

We have conducted over 5000 Home Energy Checks since this service began in 2009. We have also presented at over 1000 education sessions.

Other charitable projects

At CEA, we are involved in a range of other charitable projects. We regularly partner with other like-minded organizations to assist vulnerable community members.

Some of these projects include Healthy Home Standards, Tenants Checklist, Woodburner training and independent energy advice.