Our History

On 31 October, Auckland’s seven local councils, including Manukau City Council, and the regional council cease to exist.

On 1 November, the newly formed Auckland Council officially begins operations.

The council begins work on the first Auckland Plan, as required under the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009.

The Auckland Plan is published. It outlines an ambitious and visionary blue print for making Auckland “the world’s most liveable city”.

Investing in the social and human capital of its residents was a priority of the Manukau City Council, who were the first council in the country to introduce social and community development workers in 1966. The Auckland Plan recognises that there is an urgent need to amplify and accelerate the social, economic and physical regeneration work of the previous Manukau City Council if a unified and equitable Auckland was to be realised.

The Southern Initiative (TSI) is identified as one of two big place-based priorities in the Auckland Plan covering the local board areas of Māngere-Ōtāhuhu, Ōtara-Papatoetoe, Manurewa and Papakura.

The vision and mission of TSI is to unlock the potential of south Auckland and its people by bringing together multiple stakeholders to form and deliver a multi-sector action plan across central and local government, iwi and the non-government sector.

John McEnteer is appointed as the first General Manager of TSI which is established in Auckland Council’s Chief Planning Office. TSI is overseen by a Joint Steering Group of southern councillors and local board members, mana whenua, central government and non-government organisations. Councillor Alf Filipaina is appointed Chair with Karen Wilson, Chair of the Te Ākitai Waiohua Iwi Authority, as its Deputy.

TSI’s small team win two central government contracts:

• Māori and Pasifika Trades Training with the Tertiary Education Commission (one of 16 consortia in the country and the only consortium led by local government); and

• Healthy Families from the Ministry of Health.

However, due to politics outside of TSI’s control, it is unable to reach its goal of a multi-sector action plan.

Following an operating review, TSI pivots to become an agile innovation team focusing on a small number of critical social and economic issues for south Auckland.

The nature of TSI’s work remains strategic and, although it drew on community-led development principles, it was not to become operational in nature nor social services by de facto. TSI’s mission is now systems-change and its modus operandi is innovation.

“In order to catalyse and deliver change, we need to create a culture and practice of innovation with a bias towards action-learning and rapid experimentation. This requires a new way of working driven by entrepreneurial and visionary leadership. TSI will balance the delivery of discrete large-scale projects with a nimble approach in order to respond to opportunities as they emerge. The TSI work will build and broker relationships that will focus on both the short and long term transformational activities.”

TSI Traction Plan, 2015

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One of the first acts of the new TSI Director, Gael Surgenor, is to build a small team of four Social Intrapreneurs – the first of their kind in the country. These are not the usual roles found in the public sector; deploying entrepreneurial skills inside a large bureaucracy and having the ability to spot positive disruptions to status quo and then back them to enable systems change.

The Auckland Co-Design Lab is established through the Better Public Services Treasury Innovation Fund to provide central government with a vehicle to unravel key challenges in its social and economic regeneration efforts in south Auckland. It is supported by Auckland Council and is co-located with TSI at the Manukau Civic Building.

TSI advocates for the use of social procurement approaches in how Auckland Council purchases goods, services and works in south Auckland as part of its commitment to the area’s economic regeneration. TSI and Auckland Transport team up to deliver the country’s first suite of social procurements leveraging TSI’s Māori and Pasifika Trades Training. The small team of intrapreneurs will go on to become the country’s experts in the practice, eventually leading to the establishment of Amotai.

The Co-design Lab becomes ‘officially’ nested in TSI to strengthen the relationship between central and local government.

Core service functions of the Co-design Lab are funded via shared ‘membership’ that include eight central government agencies and Auckland Council, with additional project funding for specific initiatives and learning partnerships.

TSI continues to attract both investment and attention in its ability to tackle multi-layered, wicked problems and unearth breakthrough opportunities.

West Auckland councillors successfully campaign for The Western Initiative (TWI), covering the local board areas of the Whau, Henderson-Massey and the Waitākere Ranges. Smaller in size than TSI, it would build off TSI’s early successes and use its methodologies. The purpose of TWI is to demonstrate economic development initiatives that are just, inclusive, circular and regenerative across the west Auckland sub-region.

The Youth Connections programme (youth employment initiatives), which is co-funded with the Tindall Foundation and Hugh Green Foundation, is transferred from another part of council to TSI.

TSI secures a significant investment from the Next Foundation in its work on tamariki wellbeing and the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.

As a direct result of TSI’s work, Auckland Council is the first organisation in the country to introduce social procurement targets.

As the country goes in to the first Covid-19 lockdown, TSI and TWI urge colleagues to continue contracting with Māori and Pasifika businesses, despite uncertainty, to mitigate the economic shock. Approximately $20 million of contracts are awarded during this period.

After the first lock-down, TSI makes some minor adjustments to its organisational structure so it’s in a better position to tackle the economic shockwaves of Covid-19. Its portfolio of activities have emerged in two main areas; economic equity and public sector reform for whānau-centred praxis. Youth Connections has a minor rebrand becoming the Youth Economy team to better reflect the need to build young people’s economic literacy and power rather than a singular focus on employment.

TSI (including TWI and all other programmes) are transferred from the Chief Planning Office to the recently created Customer and Community Services directorate. The department’s name is changed to Community and Social Innovation (CSI), but TSI continues to be the primary name of the team given the brand recognition that’s been built.

The Youth Empowerment and Community Action on Youth and Drugs (CAYAD) teams are transferred to TSI.

Building on its social procurement expertise, TSI and TWI launch its first flagship economic initiative, Amotai – the country’s supplier diversity and development intermediary. The social procurement work started by TSI and the supplier diversity movement grown by TWI are now national.

Central government makes a major investment in TSI’s prototype in disrupting in-work poverty and wealth inequality for Pasifika ‘aiga as part of its Covid budget creating its second flagship economic programme, Uptempo.

TSI has grown to include TWI, the Co-design Lab, Amotai, Tamariki Wellbeing, Uptempo, Youth Economy (formerly Youth Connections), Māori and Pasifika Trades Training, Youth Empowerment, Healthy Families and CAYAD and is active in the future of work and Green New Deal kaupapa. The team now has more than 60 staff.

By the end of 2021, Auckland has spent twice as long in hard lock down than anywhere else in the country. The fifth lockdown, from mid to end-2021, is the worst. TSI continues to voice strong concerns that south and west Aucklanders are at extreme risk of worsening intergenerational socio-economic vulnerability. The fact that Auckland, having borne the brunt of the lockdowns for the whole country, is excluded from national stimulus programmes for Māori and Pasifika businesses is a bitter pill to swallow.

In response to Covid-19 lockdowns and concerns about young people not returning to school due to economic hardship, TSI partners with Manurewa High School to prototype a hybrid earn-and-learn model with some students.

Gael Surgenor is appointed by the Minister of Local Government to the panel conducting the Review into the Future of Local Government. The review provides opportunities for local government reforms to better enable innovation. Gael resigns from TSI and Tania Pouwhare is appointed to the role of General Manager.

After a successful prototype with Manurewa High School and some of its students in 2021, and with lessons learned from the Youth Economy team, the youth lab, Te Taiwhanga Rangatahi, is established.

From humble beginnings of a very small team experimenting with different approaches, TSI has a portfolio of initiatives on economic equity, early years, public sector reform and indigenous knowledge in systems change. It has also built a range of methodologies and has a strong national and international reputation for its social RnD.

TSI’s extensive use of data integrated with mātauranga Māori, science and the lived experiences of whānau and ‘aiga, gives credibility to its thought leadership on macro social and economic policy and systems change.