A South Auckland-based youth organisation has been given a $100,000 grant to help support Māori and Pasifika secondary school students find future pathways once they leave school.
The Rising Foundation (TRF) has a strong focus on long-term preventive youth work, and a big portion of the funds will go towards paying a full-time programme coordinator and mentor to provide practical, emotional and cultural support to Papakura High School.
"We've had a few hundred graduates of our programme come from Papakura High School. It all just continues to support the mahi that we do [there]," TRF's operations manager Gideon Rihari said.
"We're in four high schools, and we've got a team of five coordinators and it's always a mission for our programme administrator to find the funds to pay our youth workers."
He said the grant given by food manufacturer Bluebird and the PepsiCo Foundation is huge for TRF.
"It takes a lot of weight off our shoulders and we're able to continue the mahi we do and as everyone knows out there, times are hard and finding money for programmes like this is definitely difficult."
Reflecting on his own youth, Rihari remembers joining TRF as a rangatahi, and how much it changed his life. It inspired him to return and help other rangatahi, who remind him of his younger self.
"They supported me to make a few changes in my life, where I was heading to the wrong path ... you can definitely see a part of yourself in a lot of the tamariki in our programme. It means an awful lot to be able to be the type of person that was there for me when I was going through those same situations."
PepsiCo's senior human resources manager Tanya McFarlane said the company has supported many causes, but working with TRF is new.
"We've supported natural disasters, food supply, those sorts of things in the past, but having this relationship with The Rising Foundation, helping a grant to support a programme is probably the first of its kind."
It's the first time they have invested a grant into a New Zealand community partner, reflecting Bluebird's commitment to its strategic plan that focuses on outcomes for Māori and Pasifika.
"The principles of The Rising Foundation aligns well with our own Bluebird Rautaki Māori, which is our own commitment to uplift Māori in our workplace but also in the community," McFarlane said.
The company said it is committed to continuing their partnership with TRF by planning career days, offering mentoring opportunities with local Bluebird staff, and having staff volunteers attend TRF's camps.
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