Hamilton Multicultural Services (HMS) Trust was established as a Charitable Trust in February 1999. The Trust was formed out of concern regarding the gaps in services for people from different cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. The strategic focus of the Trust was to improve access for refugees and migrants to aid successful settlement and to increase the awareness of receiving communities.
The first service offered by the Trust was the provision of an Interpreting Service and in May of 2000 the Interpreting Service opened and operated from an office in Knox Street. The service still operates today under the name Decypher, and also provides translation of written documents.

The Trust moved in October of 2004 to the Multicultural Centre in Boundary Road (the former Marist Rugby Club rooms). In October 2006 the Multicultural Centre was renamed the Waikato Migrant Resource Centre, and in December 2017 it became Settlement Centre Waikato.

Today the HMS Trust has various services and projects to support migrants and former refugees settling in Hamilton and other parts of New Zealand including:

- Decypher (interpreting and translation)
- InfoNOW (multilingual settlement information service)
- Passport 2 Drive (community driving school)
- Open Road (refugee driver training programme)
- Migrant Employment Solutions
- Computers in Homes
- Ethnic Football Festival

HMS Trust

Org chart

Teams

Offices