Kia ora team,
Far out, we’re at that part of the year already!
Jayden will give an update soon on our progress connecting with schools and services and when things are going to kick off, but in the meantime I want to share a really exciting update.
Te Wānanga o Raukawa is joining Shoebox Christmas Aotearoa as principal sponsor!
We’ve talked a lot about the impact of changing our model so we can coach and mentor rangatahi (youth) to lead Shoebox Christmas, and how that has meant we’ve needed more funding than previous years. Most of you will have seen us trying to find support to do this over the last 6 months in particular and probably have an idea of how hard (and time-consuming) this has been.
We’re really grateful and excited to be teaming up with Te Wānanga o Raukawa for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, I’m from Otaki and a product of the community, vision and aspirations Te Wānanga o Raukawa sits within. So this just feels right.
Secondly, our rangatahi development programme started in Porirua with Ngāti Toa Rangatira, which is one of the three iwi Te Wānanga o Raukawa was established to serve - so again, it just feels right!
Lastly, one of our biggest pieces of feedback from the rangatahi we worked with last year was that they wanted to be recognised in their schooling for the learning and work of coordinating Shoebox Christmas projects. Based on that, our longer-term vision with Te Wānanga o Raukawa is to build a pathway for rangatahi from kura (school) to wānanga and the development of a degree with a clear pathway into any one of Te Wānanga o Raukawa’ postgraduate options.
This feels like the perfect partnership and we’re really excited to be working together!
Stay tuned for an update next week on projects, signing up, and our new platform 🙂
Talk soon,
Pera