about our mahi

For years, Kindness Collective has worked alongside children, whānau and communities across Aotearoa. Through this mahi, we’ve seen the challenges young people can face as they move into adulthood without clear pathways into employment or further education.

Our Community Partners are seeing the same thing. They’ve told us there is a real need for practical pathways that connect rangatahi with work experience, skills, qualifications and employment opportunities.

We have the foundations

Kindness Collective already has the extensive network of community partners, infrastructure, workplace experience and corporate relationships to help bridge that gap. Our community hub provides a real working environment, while our programme partnerships create pathways into experiencing different industries and careers.

Built from experience

We tried this approach with six rangatahi in 2025, combining paid work experience with practical skills and support. The results, feedback from rangatahi and growing demand from our Community Partners showed us this was something worth building on.

The rangatahi from 2025 continue to help shape Tupu Rangatahi as members of our advisory committee, ensuring their voices and experiences remain at the heart of the programme. We chose the name Tupu Rangatahi together, which was then gifted to us by Mā te Huruhuru’s Papa Morehu Kara, whom we are lucky enough to have as our Kaumātua.

Tupu Rangatahi builds on what we do best: bringing community, practical support and strong partnerships together to create meaningful opportunities for rangatahi.