Mission and Values

To empower and inspire a hopeful future for rangatahi [youth] by enabling and facilitating transformative learning experiences that are informed by the people and stories of place, are immersed in nature, nurture holistic wellbeing of each learner and create systemic change for themselves and their communities.
Our learning opportunities are designed and developed in collaboration with kaupapa Māori & community organisations to include preventative mental health, collaboration, bioregional and regenerative land care and growing organic food.
This ‘learning environment’ has been established on a 72ha forest-farm on the ancestral land of Te Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngā Paerangi and Ngā Rauru. This living-campus consists of built infrastructure including a native plant nursery, organic veggie gardens, orchards, and camping facilities. The infrastructure also enables small social enterprises to exist to fund the wider operations and learning experiences.

Our immersive learning experiences inspire new perspectives and provide skills to enable people to facilitate resilience and wellbeing for themselves and their communities.

What We’re Growing

Growing eco-sourced native trees and planting them on the land and around the Whanganui Catchment, weed control, pest control
Establishing and growing a diverse and nutrient rich foodscape from heritage and saved seeds under the Hua Parakore Māori Organics Certification
Creating opportunities for local and global communities to reconnect to land care & growing food practices, nested in the stories of place, as well as supporting personal and collective leadership

Your Support Helps With…

Regenerative land care practices including weed control, pest control, growing in the native plant nursery & planting,
Establishment of more learning opportunities including content creation and infrastructure

How We Measure Change

We explore qualitative measurements through storytelling (testimonials, stories of change, videography, photography and blogs) and quantifiable measurements through data collection (eg stream health monitoring, number of trees planted & grown, number of courses & participants, variety of courses).

In 2023 we created an evaluation toolkit with support from Malatest International and a grant from Lotteries to more clearly understand our theory of change and how to measure this. Our qualitative measures primarily include capturing stories of positive impact and change through videos, interviews and testimonials. Quantitative measurements include demographics, number and types of course offerings, amount of food distributed and locations, number of trees grown and planted, soil & water quality and financial assets established.