NGĀ RANGATAHI
TOA We work with South Auckland rangatahi to help them develop the skills to live their best lives
SUPPORT OUR RANGATAHI
Donate now through our GiveALittle page and you’ll help our rangatahi dream up bright futures for themselves. Your donations allow us to spread the goodness by expanding our proven programmes to benefit more rangatahi. To give you an idea of our targets, it costs us $5,300 to put one rangatahi through our wraparound programmes for a year. 

WHAT WE DO

Ngā Rangatahi Toa works with South Auckland students who don’t always have a good experience in school. We use creative arts and wellbeing programmes to reconnect them with their potential, and engage them with higher education and employment opportunities. Our projects take the form of noho wānanga (learning camps), in-school creative education programmes, a flagship theatre project called Manawa Ora, fortnightly youth mentoring sessions and employment internships, all within a whānau wrap-around support system. All of our projects are meaningfully connected to each other and scaffold rangatahi through a process of rangatiratanga (leadership) to prepare them for adulthood.

NOHO WĀNANGA

Wānanga is the opportunity for us as a collective to get away from the confinements
of the city and head to either bush or water, to help us unlock
and connect with those creative elements faster.

WHĀRIKI SCHOOLS

We work with South Auckland schools to identify and support students who'll benefit from our programmes.

MANAWA ORA

Manawa Ora is an intensive, performance-based arts mentoring project
that supports our rangatahi to creatively explore their own life experiences.

HOW WE DO IT
Ngā Rangatahi Toa values creativity (specifically the art of performance) as a catalyst for important life skills including confidence, communication skills, lateral thinking, relationship-building, accountability and commitment. Our projects engage rangatahi in contemporary dance and street dance, spoken word poetry and rap, solo and group singing, theatre games and the traditional weaponry of mau rākau. Youth development sessions with our highly skilled  practitioners equip rangatahi with vital life skills, including Te Whare Tapa Whā goal-setting for social, physical, mental and spiritual health, as well as positive healthy relationship development, conflict-resolution practice, and leadership skills  and development.

Our journey, our haka

THE DIFFERENCES WE MAKE
We carefully measure outcomes to know that we’re making a difference, and this is what we see: a reduction in youth suicide and self-harm, a reduction in youth offending, and re-engagements with with schools. Most of all we see rangatahi developing the confidence to own their own space, develop resilience, and create their own aspirations for their futures.

From our Journal

Ngā Rangatahi supporters celebrated Matariki at the opening of an exhibition created by our rangatahi at Toi Tū in Ponsonby. The exhibition was based on docum...

25 June, 2021

Our executive director, Huia O’Sullivan, was on stage recently at Basement Theatre for the Re: News panel on the awkward relationship between art and mone...

25 June, 2021
OUR PEOPLE
Ngā Rangatahi Toa is a non-profit organisation based in Auckland and powered by the energy of a diverse and enthusiastic team.

BECOME A SUPPORTER

Ngā Rangatahi Toa is a lean non-profit organisation which would love your support to continue its transformative work. We’d love you to become a monthly supporter, or donate whatever you would like to help our rangatahi develop their dreams and realise their ambitions. We’d like to especially acknowledge the amazing team at One Percent Collective, who make it so easy for New Zealanders to support organisations like us. Check out their work and donate at the link. 

Each year we work with up to 40 rangatahi. The basic cost of supporting one of our rangatahi to build a brighter future through our transformative creative arts mentoring projects, and through wrap-around support is $5,300 a year. Any donation, big or small, will help us to reach more young people who need someone to believe in them, so that they can believe in themselves.

Our Supporters

We’re so grateful to the many organisations that make our work possible, and make it possible for the young people we work with to have more of the tools they need to chart their own paths. These are some of the crews that help us do our work: