Community Connection

National connection

Hiruharama 

Awa Trip

Challenge 2000 has a strong connection with the people of Hiruharama and we regularly travel up the Whanganui Awa (river) to connect with the people, provide programmes and visit during pilgrimage. We also host Te Kura o Te Wainui a Rua here in Wellington and build relationships, with some of these students coming to Wellington for their college years. They students live in our youth houses and attend local schools in Wellington, offering them the opportunity to excel both academically and personally.

Kaikoura

Kaikoura holiday programme

In response to the November 2016 Kaikoura earthquake Challenge 2000 initiated and delivered a youth and community development project to support the people of Kaikoura. Challenge 2000 worked collaboratively with Whakatu Rangatahi to deliver this project and we now have an ongoing working partnership. Our team travel to Kaikoura during the school holidays to deliver holiday programmes and support the local community.

local connection

Southern and Eastern Suburbs

St Francis de Sales leadership day

All of our youth houses are based in the southern and eastern suburbs of Wellington. They are our centres for youth development. Our five houses are made up of young people and youth leaders who have relationships with the community groups where they are based. We have access to the Island Bay hall which provides us with wonderful opportunities for drama, kapa haka and holiday programmes.

Northern Suburbs & Tawa

Newlands community centre youth group

We have strong partnerships with businesses, community groups, parishes and groups in the Northern suburbs. Challenge 2000 are at Newlands Community Centre every Tuesday 3pm – 5pm. We provide a programme for intermediate school children. Each session is different and responsive to what our young ones are interested in doing. All welcome – feel free to pop down and give it a try we love seeing new faces! Come along on a Tuesday after school – it is free!

Porirua

Steve O'Connor and Mayor Mike Tana.

Porirua Hub Opening

Since the beginning of Challenge 2000, the agency has had strong links through our staff and whanau in the Porirua community. We have had social workers and youth workers in the local colleges since 2010. Over the years we have run girls’ groups, leadership training, provided mentoring and run school holiday programmes… and we continue to provide all of these services! We are excited to be physically present in the heart of Porirua now – with our new hub opening at the beginning of March 2018!

Linden Community Centre

At the end of 2019 and after discussions with the Wellington City Council, Challenge2000 agreed to facilitate another community group programme, this time in Linden. The purpose of this program is to deliver positive, developmental and meaningful activities to young people within the Linden Social Centre to enhance both leadership skills and wider community engagement. Our purpose is to empower young people to be the best versions of themselves and to build strong and resilient communities. This is at the heart of what we do. We live these principles in our Youth leadership programme by supporting young people to reach their full potential.

We offer a wide variety of weekly activities and development opportunities that support students living within Linden to regularly achieve.

The programme operates two days a week out of the Linden Social Centre. So far we have held programmes such as group discussion days, cooking and baking activities, project planning and have held youth led projects (The group has successfully planned and executed a community BBQ to engage the wider community).

All activities within the leadership programme are implemented to achieve specific outcomes such as:

  1. Learning life skills
  2. Learning leadership skills
  3. Facilitating wider community engagement to develop strong and resilient communities
  4. To support the wellbeing and mental health of young people
  5. To support young people to be the best version of themselves
  6. To uplift mana

The Leadership group is facilitated by two Challenge 2000 staff members; Sophie Jennings and Aidan Ritchie. We are both committed to developing young people and building strong communities. We are proud of our programme and the way we support our young people within Linden. We are excited to see how the group and the wider community will progress with time.