At Kickstart Youth they believe that all young people deserve the chance to thrive regardless of socio-economic background, academic ability, family dynamic, mental health or other factors. Their vision is to “realise hope for a better future” for the young people of Upper Hutt. Kickstart was started in late 2014 as a charitable trust named Upper Hutt Community Youth Trust to work with young people who often had no other support. They have recently re branded to Kickstart (from UHCYT) to recognise the work they do in kickstarting dreams for young people.
On a weekly basis, Kickstart is connecting with 150 plus young people through a variety of youth programmes, mentoring, activities and their youth center in Upper Hutt Rams Buildings off Railway Ave. The programmes run by kickstart vary hugely from one on one mentoring to leadership development programmes, well-being initiatives, barista training and a drop-in center.
Kickstart has a dedicated team of qualified youth workers who work in our colleges and alternative education providers, as well as from the Kickstart Youth Center.
When a group of young people were recently asked what words they associated with Kickstart they came back with: “Empowerment, safety, growth, family, learning, fun”. This aligns to the kaupapa of what Kickstart is trying to achieve.
As with all charities, funding is always at the top of their radar, and often there is a shortfall between the funding provided and the services being delivered. Just $20 a week enables them to deliver an hour of mentoring to a vulnerable young person, you can be a part of helping them make a difference to these young people.
Like all Charitable Trusts, the work of Kickstart is dependent on receiving funding and donations, and they’ve been proactive about reducing the reliance on grants through a transport and coffee social enterprise helping to fund some of the work that they do.
So it makes sense that they’d want to raise funds through Switch Your Spend too, being a social enterprise ourselves!
We’re so excited to see the support this awesome cause will get from the community.
Head to www.switchyourspend.co.nz to get started and to support these amazing people who are making such a huge difference to the lives of the young people in Upper Hutt.
