Upcoming Workshops in May

We have three exciting workshops coming up this May! Our highly regarded Strength-Based Skills workshop will be held in both Whangārei and Nelson, offering the ability to skill-up and gain practical strategies for those working with young people.

Additionally, we’re bringing our Foundational Skills in Youth Mentoring workshop to Auckland, providing essential skills for anyone looking to support and empower youth effectively. Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your skills and connect with like-minded professionals!

Reserve a place for you and your team by booking now: https://www.youthmentoring.org.nz/training/schedule.cfm 

Noting Sad Anniversaries

It is with a profound sense of gratitude and loss that NZYMN places on record the 2024 passing of two outstanding former trustees. Fuimaono Taulauniu Norman Tuiasau died on March 7 after a long illness, while Fa’anana Efeso Collins died suddenly on February 21.

The lives of both men were exemplary expressions of the Samoan ideal of tautua (service), with Fuimaono remaining active until the very end in leadership roles, including co-chairing the Great Potentials Foundation, while Efeso had shared inspirational messaging with all of Aotearoa, in his maiden speech to parliament, a few days before his death:

"If I was to inspire anyone by getting to this House, I hope it’s the “square pegs” the misfits, the forgotten, the unloved, the invisible – it’s the dreamers who want more, who expect more, who are impatient for change and have this uncanny ability to stretch us further."

The best memorial is for the work to endure! NZYMN will do all in our power to uphold and maintain their legacy over the course of this year and into the future.

Have your say about the NZ Youth Mentoring Network

In case you missed it at the end of last year, we've launched a survey to learn more about our network, and there's still time to complete it!

Let us know your thoughts and impressions about the work that we do, as well as areas where we can support your work better. This will help us to improve what we offer in 2025 and build an ever stronger and more supportive network.

The survey closes at the end of this month, so please share this with your team so that we can get the best information possible. It only takes 10 minutes and your input is truly appreciated!

Complete the survey here

Our 2025 Workshop Schedule

Our 2025 schedule is now live here so if you're keen to level-up your youth mentoring skills join us for one of our highly-rated mentoring workshops where you'll learn about strength-based skills and quality relationships from our incredible facilitators.

Can't make it in person? No stress, we've got you covered with our online sessions - perfectly packaged so that you can keep your skills sharp remotely.

We can't wait to see you.

Signing off for the year with three generations of leadership

We're wrapping up 2024 with a celebration of the wonderful outgoing leadership team while looking forward to the future with our network survey.

A year of growth and change

It has been another year packed with some incredible workshops delivered by our wonderful facilitators Rod Baxter & Ross McCook, along with support from Joy, Ann, & myself. Maybe we saw you at one of them! We want to thank-you for all of your hard work in the community and with young people, and we want to continue to provide support, training, and connections. I'd like to invite you to help us with that by completing our survey.

We've also had some changes in our team, with Joy handing over the reigns to James.

Joy continues to volunteer - so you'll see her around - and I have begun referring to Joy as our 'editor-at-large' - reviewing our website content, updating publications & resources, and helping with newsletters. At the same time our long time admin manager, and a former GM, Nicki McDonald is stepping down. All three of us got together for a wonderful celebration dinner in Parnell (along with the board) and it was great to share in their wisdom and advice for the future.

A few words from Joy...

As I ease into retirement at the end of 2024, I am taking time to reflect on the power of the work mentors do. Whether you are a volunteer or a paid mentor you touch the future, encouraging taiohi to stand strong and respond confidently to the world they live in. By listening to their stories, finding the resources they need and sharing your wise words you support them to resolve issues, develop as positive leaders and build deep and lasting well-being. Kia ora.

I wish you are your family the very best of the festive season. May you have the opportunity to relax and refresh so that you are ready to continue the valuable work you do with the remarkable young people of Aotearoa. Meri kirihimete.

...and from Nicki

It has been an incredible journey with the NZ Youth Mentoring Network over the past 12 years, starting as General Manager and later continuing in a supporting role after relocating from Auckland. It’s been a privilege to have had the opportunity to contribute to the growth and impact of this vital organisation. It's truly inspiring to see how mentoring continues to empower and transform the lives of young people across Aotearoa New Zealand.

An action-packed 2025

We've just finished planning an exciting training schedule for 2025 which we'll publish on our website in the coming week. You’ll also see an uptick in social media activity across Facebook, Instagram, & Linkedin - so make sure you follow us. And lastly, but not least, we're exploring ways that we can foster more connections & networking among the organisations and people who work with taiohi. That's going to include some exciting in-person events. Our survey is one tool we're using to get a greater understanding of what you need - but you can always reach out to me directly.

Finally, I wish you all a safe and happy holiday period. Your hard work & dedication to young people is inspiring and I hope you have a chance to spend time with loved ones and celebrate over the summer months.

Meri kirihimete ngā mihi o te tau hou ki to whānau

- James and the NZ Youth Mentoring team

New General Manager appointed

The New Zealand Youth Mentoring Network is thrilled to announce the appointment of James McGoram to the role of General Manager. James started with us in mid-September and is quickly learning the ropes from outgoing GM Joy Eaton.

James has been involved in a number of non-profit organisations over the last decade, becoming well-known as an advocate for people with rare disorders & disability. Born and raised in West Auckland, where he continues to live with his family, James has also run his own successful business and is passionate about community-driven change.

“Working to support the Youth Mentoring community is a dream opportunity for me and one that I’m very excited to take up. I’ve seen the enormous impact that effective youth mentoring can have on our young people and their communities. It is a privilege to be involved in this important work.”

Says Chair Ann Dunphy, “The recruitment process as a whole has been hugely positive for our organisation. This is such an important appointment for us, and it was crucial that we got the process right. It is with great pleasure that we welcome James to the team, and it is with renewed energy that we look to the future for the Youth Mentoring Network.”

As James settles in to the GM role there will be busy times ahead. “I can see I’m going to have a great many meetings with people around our network over the next few months,” says James, “and I’m looking forward to this most of all, not least because I believe it is the relationships within our network that lend it its strength.”

He is also hoping that his background in design & technology can add a new dynamic to the way the organisation communicates with others about its work.

“I feel the Youth Mentoring Network has an amazing story to tell, and I cannot wait to start working with the NZYMN whanau to share this story with the broader community.”

Looking to connect?

If you’re keen to connect with James for a discussion about the network, youth mentoring, or your own organisation – or if you simply want to say hello - please reach out by email to james@youthmentoring.org.nz. Alternatively, you can connect with James on Linkedin

Upskilling Young Kaimahi initiative - successfully launched

Training and development workshops for young people supporting young people 

The Government’s Youth Plan, launched at the INVOLVE 2023 conference, outlined targeted support for young people. As part of this work the NZ Youth Mentoring Network alongside Ara Taiohi have created a workshop that aims to upskill young people in youth development and mentoring.

In March we ran our first 2 day session, working with over 90 university students who are involved in a project to support Year 13 students on their pathway to tertiary study. The workshop encouraged a deep understanding of Mana Taiohi, the youth development framework and the uptake of effective mentoring skills. It was a really positive start to our collaboration with Ara Taiohi, and we are looking forward to working with other groups of young people around the motu.  

Read more:  Upskilling Young Kaimahi flyer

Efeso Collins | Fuimaono Tuiasau – two distinguished former NZYMN trustees

It was a very sad coincidence, that the iconic Catholic church in Otahuhu - where the family funeral service for Efeso Collins was held on March 1 following his huge public farewell in Manukau the previous day, was later the venue for a requiem mass for Fuimaono Tuiasau, on March 13.

Both Efeso and Fuimaono had provided generous and memorable contributions as NZYMN trustees, then continued to be actively involved in Youth Mentoring. Fuimaono retained formal connections via the MATES programme, while Fa’anānā Efeso who had provided past mentor training for NZYMN together with his wife Vasa Fia, is already on our permanent record, thanks to his written contributions to training materials.     

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith is a Biblical quote from Fuimaono’s funeral sheet, that applies equally to both these extraordinary sons of Samoa. Efeso was a totally consistent and remarkable exemplar of Tautua – Samoan culture’s paramount leadership value of Service, while Fuimaono’s identical capacity to use words to balance strength with sensitivity was also memorably noted – How to be powerful and move gently in the world.  

Efeso will be forever associated with Otara, while Fui attended Onehunga High School with GM Joy Eaton – who later joined NZYMN chair Ann Dunphy, in teaching at Fes’ beloved Tangaroa College.

Reproduced below in tribute to them both, is the poem recited by Karlo Mila at Efeso’s farewell on 29 February 2024

Beyond the Reef Son of the Southside, Infant of Ōtara, there will be churches heaving with hymns, despair in the corner dairies, tears in the eyes of teachers, disappointed blessings in the mouths of preachers, school children singing laments, community boards crying, I hear the haka of Tangaroa College a stampede stamping with anger and pride, teenagers looking up from their devices, learning your name for the first time, a whole community reeling, united in a singular feeling: grief. 

Tuakana of the Pasifika Community: Every Facebook friend has a selfie with you, because you were not a selfie, you were community, collective, in the village of the migrant dream. Presidential among your peers, the next wave… And among unprecedented upward mobility, you pulled with all your might, the ones we might leave behind. Reading the pedagogy of the liberated, leading a dreaming fono. 

Mentoring many: connecting us, repping us, collectivity in your bones, justice in your stride. By us, with us, for us. Without compromise. Pakeke of Parliament, you deserved to stand upright there, voice of the voiceless, heralding the hushed into hallowed halls. You dared to Maya Angelou “rise”. Taking that Moana Jackson deep breath, before you exercised so many acts of courage. You reached beyond the boundaries that racism set for us. You swam beyond the safe, blessing the sharks that circled around you, death threats, race bait, white supremacist hate.

For us, it is a dangerous democracy, but still you pursued that perilous pathway to power, facing powerful push-back, racist resistance, old-boys clubs-clubbing, the back-stab of our own machetes, a hair’s breadth away. too close for comfort. A heart would break, to walk up that steep city street so distressed with stress. A heart would break. And yet you found the channel that would take you past the the reef, where others fear to go, you found flow. 

With your beloveds, braved the waves, entered the open sea, in which we find ourselves free, where we remember the ocean in us, ancient mariners, expert navigators, sailing our salty pathways to each other, expansive as the largest body of water in the world. I wish for our children to meet each other there, and never know, how small they wanted us to be. 

All of us called to be more, voyage further, pursue ambitious service, in your wake. Son of Sāmoa, Child of Aotearoa, there will be a karanga called in exuberant welcome - an unwavering voice called to calling those who’ve passed, to the other side, past the Pōhutukawa, from the jumping off place across ancient ocean roads, the journey to Pulotu, Hawaaiki, heaven, entering the multidimensional lagi where your people sing with fragrant flowers and festive lei, celebrating. 

Man of faith, a true servant of Christ, devout Christian, a soul of salvation, returning home. Whetūrangitia. You become the ancestor we always knew you were.

2024 Training schedule - registrations are now open for all workshops

 We are pleased to announce our schedule of public workshops for 2024. We will be running:

• four foundational skills mentoring workshops (MentorPlus), and
• nine Strengths-based skills for youth workshops. 

Note: Further workshops may be added to our schedule based on demand. 

Registrations are now open for all 2024 workshops.  To register, click on the link next to the workshop you wish to attend.  

Registrations now open for our new Strengths-Based Skills for Youth Mentoring workshop

We are excited to bring you this brand new workshop in our Sharing the Kaupapa series. This new workshop is all about exploring strengths-based approaches in Youth Mentoring. 

In this new workshop our aim is to:

• increase depth in understanding the strengths-based philosophy
• identify the relevance of a strengths focus in youth mentoring
• shift youth mentoring practice and the language we use with and about young people to become increasingly strengths-based and mana-affirming
• explore a reflective process to guide change (the Column Tool)
• practice 12 strengths-based skills
• build even stronger youth mentoring networks, and of-course
• have fun!

Who should attend?

This workshop is for people who work with young people, including: mentors, mentor programme providers, youth workers, educators, school counsellors, pastors, central and local government agency staff and community workers.

By bringing these workshops to the regions once again, we hope to strengthen regional and national networks in the well-established youth mentoring community.

Registration fee

There is a registration fee of $150 inclusive GST and booking fee. Catering is included and you will also receive a comprehensive workbook to take back to work with you.

Register online now:

Registrations are now open for our first two workshops:

1. South Auckland:  29 February 2024. click on link to register: 

https://events.humanitix.com/south-auckland-workshop-sharing-the-kaupapa-strenghts-based-skills-youth-mentoring

2.  Wellington: 21 March 2024. click on link to register: 

https://events.humanitix.com/wellington-sharing-the-kaupapa-strengths-based-skills-for-youth-mentoring

Recognition in the King’s Birthday Honours list

It was something special to see youth mentoring recognised in the recent King's Birthday Honours list.

Ms Ann Dunphy , Chair of NZYMN, was acknowledged as a Member of the NZ Order of Merit (MNZM). The citation highlights her work as a leading educator and her long service in the drive to promote effective and safe mentoring in Aotearoa. Ann is taking this opportunity to spread the good word about intentional youth mentoring and the value of NZYMN.

We also acknowledge our good friend and facilitator Rod Baxter has been awarded an Officer of NZ Order of Merit (ONZM). This recognises his long service in supporting youth and youth workers. It also recognises his current work as CEO of the Prince’s Trust Aotearoa.

This year's Honours list also acknowledges the work of a former NZYMN trustee Frank Solomon and his wife Judy. Although this citation focusses on their current work in age care, we know that Frank and Judy were pivotal in the establishment of the Solomon Group, a group of training establishments that help youth transition from school to work. 

Congratulations and thank you for your outstanding mahi and dedication.

Ten pieces of advice for the teachers of young brown scholars, by Dr Michelle Johansson

1. Raise the bar. Don't dumb it down because they are brown, respect them enough to expect their best, and when they bring to you less, say THIS is not good enough, not YOU are not good enough. They've been told that enough and it's rough and they're tough, but the stuff that they're made of is enough.

2. BELIEVE unfailingly in their limitless potential. They will look in your eyes and know if you are lying.

3. Feed them. Literally. Feed them. Feed their minds, feed their mouths and feed their hunger for justice. Break bread with them and remember that when you take communion a covenant is made and there was a promise in that supper, that blood shed and shared means sacrifice.

4. Laugh. Laugh at yourself. But not at your jokes. Your jokes are dry but you are funny - And in laughter there's power; and in humour there's humility - and this ranks higher than their academic standing or rank score - it is more.

5. No one ever changed the world by yelling at it. Fear might change their behaviour but respect will change their mind.

6. Know that you are in the presence of warriors. They have fought. There are fighting. There are battles behind their eyes; and you cannot possibly understand the arms they bear, the scars they wear. Don't make the classroom another trek behind enemy lines. Sometimes they need a soft place to land, a safe space to stand, someone willing to understand. And if this is not the lesson you planned? perhaps it is the lesson YOU need.

7. Be the grown up and own up when you're wrong, be strong enough to fail sometimes, to ask for help sometimes. Be the mistake maker, the risk taker, give them permission to do the same. Be fallible, be malleable - take the shape of the tool that's needed coz ako means that if they’re not learning then you’re not teaching and if nothing ever changes, then nothing ever changes.

8. When they rage at you - and often they will coz often they're fill up and fed up with their lives and they throw words like knives at your feet - don't throw them back. Pick those knives up and see them for what they are. Not weapons thrown to hurt YOU but to relieve THEM. They could not carry them anymore. And you? Pick the knives off the floor, throw them out of the door and begin again.

9. Defend them. Inherent in their postcode. You will hear stories of failure that's prevalent in the pigment of their skin and Don't let that shit happen on your shift. It is your duty to tell a new story.

10. Stand WITH them and FOR them and BY them. Speak with them and for them. See them and know them for who they are. Hold them - in your arms, in your thoughts, in your prayers.

Don't let go.
Fight.
Fight for them.
And keep fighting.
They are worth it.
And If you back them when they're 15?
They will have your back for life.

Youth Mentoring Resources - fun activities to bring to your mentoring sessions

When you are stuck for an idea on what to do with your mentee (young person) at your next meeting then this repository of activities is a great place to start. It covers a wide range of areas including: communication; relationship building; positive attitude and identity; culture and diversity and academic support. Thank you to the University of Auckland, the Great Potentials Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation for making this repository of activities freely available for everyone to use in their mentoring sessions.

Click on the following link to access these activities: http://www.education.auckland.ac.nz/en/for/current-students/facilities-and-resources/youth-mentoring-resources.html

International Research from The Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring