Rafting the Waiau Toa

27th Nov 2020

Woohoo - these wonderful wahine just rafted the Waiau Toa, it was awesome to spend some time with them in the great outdoors! A massive thanks to Sport Tasman, through the Tū Manawa Fund, for supporting us to make this possible! And of course the awesome guides at Clarence River Rafting!

Little garden boxes

29th Oct 2020

The Thursday morning community shed group and our community garden volunteers teamed up to create little garden boxes to give away at the pre-school expo yesterday. A massive thanks to all those involved and we hope all those little gardeners out there have fun growing produce for their whānau!

Lateral Youth

18th Sep 2020

Lateral Youth is run weekly on a Friday evening at the Scouthall. There is food, games and fun - with a funky theme everynow and again - movie night or taco night anyone??

Open to youth years 7 upwards! Come along to join in the excitement!

Breaking News!! New partnership with Mayor's Taskforce for Jobs!

20th Aug 2020

We are super excited to announce that we are partnering with Kaikōura District Council and Mayor's Taskforce for Jobs to help work with young workers or those who have had their employment affected by Covid, to find sustainable employment. This is a new project within Kaikōura, working in our established team. We are offering an exciting opportunity to make a real difference in our community! 

Our initial step in this project is to employ some fabulous people to help deliver the project.

We have three job vacancies - and we want your help to find the right people to fill them - so please share this with your contacts and networks. 

• a full time Employment Coordinator to liaise with businesses and provide initial and ongoing analysis of job opportunities, skills gaps and training needs. This role includes working with clients and employers to gain sustainable employment, provide ongoing in work support and pastoral care for the employed and support for employers. This role will also organise micro-credential training needs such as grow safe certificates, site safe certificates to be delivered to participants.
• 20 hours per week Youth Employability Facilitator, delivering soft skills training for employment, placing clients into work experience, delivering work exploration and volunteer opportunities. This role will also work alongside Kaikōura High School to support more opportunities for students still at school to engage in career exploration.
• 20 hours per week Driving Coordinator, providing support and removing barriers to gaining driver licences. This includes teaching the learner licence theory, supporting clients to book and travel out of town for their restricted and full tests, organising defensive driving courses and setting up a community driver mentor programme.

To apply:

• Download the application for employment and the application for a NZ Police check from our downloads tab
• Email your documents to vicki@kaikoura.link
• We expect to receive the application for employment form, application for a NZ Police check, cover letter, CV.

Applications close on Friday 4 September and we aim to interview the following week.

Youth Services

1st Apr 2020

Young people work with community-based providers (us!) who give guidance, support and encouragement to help them find the education, training or work-based learning that works. Youth Service offers guidance and practical support to young people. It is about stepping in early to help build potential through education, training or work-based learning, to gain the skills to find a job and have an independent future.

Some young people will work with a Youth Service provider as part of getting financial support from Work and Income. This includes young people who are receiving Youth Payment, Young Parent Payment or are a young partner receiving a main Work and Income benefit.

Youth Coach

Mani Columbus is the main Youth Coach for Kaikōura. Mani is passionate about young people, their potential and wellbeing. Mani is available on 027 644 6144 or email mani@kaikoura.link 

Youth Service is for:

• 16 and 17 year olds (and some 15 year olds) who are not engaged in employment, education or training (NEET), or young people who are at risk of moving into this category
• 16 to 19 year-old young parents
• 16 and 17 year olds who can’t live with their parents or guardians, or be supported by them or anyone else
• 16 or 17 years old, who have no dependent children and are the partner of a main Work and income beneficiary
• 16 to 19 years old, who have a dependent child or children and are the partner of a main Work and income beneficiary.

If you are a young person not in work, education or training, and not on a benefit:

Youth Service providers can offer you coaching and mentoring to help you into education, training or work-based learning. They can also offer you guidance and support towards an independent future.

If you are a young person needing financial support:

You may be eligible for the Youth Payment. Youth Payment is a payment to young people aged 16 or 17 who do not have dependent children, and are in need of financial assistance.

For example, if you are single, you may qualify for Youth Payment if you can’t live with your parents or guardian or get financial support from them or anyone.

Young Parent Payment is a weekly payment for 16 to 19 year old parents who have dependent children, and are in need of financial assistance.

For example, to qualify for Young Parent Payment you may be:

• 16 or 17 years old, living with your parents/ guardian, and they are eligible for Family Tax Credit, or
• 16 or 17 years old and can’t live with your parents/ guardian or get financial support from anyone, or 
• 18 to 19 years old with no partner.

As a condition of receiving these payments you need to be working with a Youth Service provider and meeting a number of obligations.

Further information about Youth Services can be found here 

Entrepreneurship Evening

20th Mar 2020

18 young people took the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with some of our local entrepreneurs, listening to stories about how they got started and interviewing them while exploring highlights and challenges involved with being in self employment.

A huge thanks to our local legends and entrepreneurs who shared their stories and provided inspiration to our rangatahi. Gus, Genevieve, Becs, Corinna, Miriama, Bob and Korey, you were all amazing and it was so heartening to see the kindness and willingness to awhi our young people in their journeys that you were able to offer. We are absolutely sure that there were some great conversations and thoughts following your presentations and conversations.

Corinna and the team at the Beach House - an awesome venue and amazing kai - thank you!

Petra and Rocco from Kaikoura Youth council - thanks a heap for the great MCing - you guys rock.

And a big thanks to the Ministry of Youth Development for supporting this with funding.

We were planning our next session to be a trip to Chch, but in the current climate we will have a re-think and get back to you all about next steps - possibly we will go digital with our next session - any suggestions are welcome!

Special FX and Stage Makeup

15th Mar 2020

The incredibly talented Laura Hewetson (https://thisislaurasusan.wordpress.com/) spent a weekend supporting some of our young people to learn some special effects makeup and stage makeup skills. 

As you'll see from the photos, a ton of fun was had while learning to make injuries, paint day of the dead faces (sugar skulls), different effects to create shadow, shape and textures. 

This workshop was supported with funding from the Ministry of Youth Development and is part of our 'Ko Wai Au' project - a series of mini projects designed to help young people explore what motivates, excites and inspires them, allowing them to develop a deeper sense of identity - Who Am I?

Hit the Wall!

7th Mar 2020

Matt Moriarty from Canyon Creative collaborated with 9 young people to create this very cool mural outside of Te Hā o Mātauranga.

The young people designed a series of sketches which were digitised, plotter cut, laminated and installed. We absolutely love the finished design!

At the official opening of the mural, each young person talked about a design they created, why they created this and what it meant to them as a young person living in Kaikōura. 

Matt used a restricted process for the mural. Creatives sometimes have too many options. Using restrictions can limit these. He talked about the brief being restricted to identity - how does this design relate to them as kiwi's, as Kaikōura people. The process was restricted to a contour/line drawing. There was digital restriction - 8 colours, using a digital plotter. This allowed creativity to thrive in restricted parameters. Musicians and writers often use this sort of process too.