During the first week of the April school holidays, we had our first Great Pathway Youth Development Programme (GPYD) of 2019. This programme was highly anticipated as it was the first time that we have had our wāhine and tāne together. It was also the most numbers that we have had on a programme as 26 rangatahi joined us for a week filled with activities.
Our rangatahi (young people) involved in our programme are deemed at-risk in our community. The aim of our programme is to keep our Te Aranui kids occupied during the school holidays with team building exercises, lessons in Tikanga Māori, fun activities and positive role modelling. Te Aranui Youth Trust works with amazing staff from the NZ Police and the Ministry of Education. Our efforts combined allowed us to safely monitor and effectively manage our large troop throughout the week.
This is what we got up to over the week:
– Every morning we would pick up our rangatahi and get together over breakfast at the Rangataua Rugby Club. – After breakfast, we would all form a circle where our kaiako focused on teaching our rangatahi about what it means to show manaaki, aroha, tiaki and awhi,
(these are teachings that we strive to instil into our work to motivate our Te Aranui kids to be positive members of our community). – After morning tea each day, we painted canvas’ that went to people and organisations that have given their time, resources or donations towards Te Aranui Youth Trust. We wanted to teach our rangatahi to give thanks to those that give to us. – We would then practice Kapa Haka taught by the amazing Whaea Nia from Papamoa College. – Each afternoon was filled with a different activity which gave our rangatahi new experiences. Throughout the week we played laser tag, learned how to paddle waka and stand up paddle board, showed off our trampolining skills at Flip Out and lastly had lots of fun at the virtual reality gaming centre.
We received amazing feedback from our rangatahi and their whanau who are all keen to come back next school holidays. We would like to thank Danielle Squire, Shane Swales, Dion Kairau, Sonny Walker, Nia Finau, Alison Collins, Sherly Fitzgerald, Emma Buxton, Tawhai Schuster, Mitch Holton and Ole Gasper for their amazing support throughout the week.