2023

How might we increase the number of Māori and Pasifika rangatahi into high value green and tech career pathways?

Find out more in this report from Te Taiwhanga Rangatahi who have been imagining an economy of mana that’s future focussed, good for people and great for our natural world too.

2023

What role can local government play in making our food systems more sustainable and accessible?

This report outlines different examples throughout the country including The Southern Initiative’s work in south Auckland.

2022

Tāmaki Makaurau spent twice as long in hard lockdown due to Covid-19 than anywhere else in the country. With significant disruption to young people’s schooling, many didn’t return, leaving school to work as families experienced tough economic times. From our previous research on Youth in the South, we knew that completing Year 13 is a significant protective factor for young south Aucklanders. We also had valuable insights and connections from our Youth Economy work.

This is the story of our collaboration with Manurewa High School to test a flexible learning experience in response to these complexities. The prototype then matured into the design lab, Te Taiwhanga Rangatahi, focused on understanding rangatahi through rangatahi themselves.

2022

Aotearoa/New Zealand continues to have some of the highest rates of family harm in the OECD. As well as being violations of human and women’s rights, this harm undermines our efforts in cultural, economic and social wellbeing and in realising Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Integrated community-led responses will require a significant shift from the current system which is largely reliant on formal service-based approaches and prescribed tauiwi and government-led interventions.

This report on visualising the shift to a different response was a collaboration with Te Puna Aonui (formerly the Joint Venture on Family Violence and Sexual Violence) with the generous support of whānau, community and government partners.

2022

How can we make our food systems more sustainable and accessible?

Find out more about our Healthy Families work, the difference these initiatives have made and what we learned along the way.

2021

Economic inequality is the slow violence relentlessly undermining south Auckland’s prospects. Undoubtedly, this will be exacerbated by the economic shocks from Covid-19 and others still to come. What could a massive mobilisation of investment look like?

Off the back of the Prosperity South and West report, we homed in on Māori and Pasifika businesses and workers pioneering a circular economy like nowhere else in the world.

Read more about our ambitious vision.

2021

When Covid-19 hit, we knew that the economic shock would hit south and west Aucklanders first, hardest, and longest, as happens with every economic shock.

Joining forces with Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, we developed a bold vision on how we could disrupt the viscous cycle of inequity and turn the crisis into an opportunity for transformational change.

2021

Since emerging as an idea in 2017, the Papatoetoe Food Hub in south Auckland has been growing a community-based approach to providing good and affordable food.

In this report we describe the journey and our learnings.

2020

This national report across Healthy Families sites provides five key insights on the impact of the first Covid-19 lockdown on food systems. Read here about what happened in south Auckland.