Shared Prosperity summer update — The Southern Initiative

He Waka Eke Noa

There are now 110 Māori and Pacific-owned businesses who are part of He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN). Over the last 12 months, $4 million worth of contracts have been awarded to HWEN businesses. Our networking initiatives have created over 20 collaborations and 150 business-to-business and buyer introductions.

Auckland Council has now set procurement targets for employment, supplier diversity and environmental outcomes to go live across the whole council on 1 July this year. TSI’s big focus is increasing Māori and Pacific-owned businesses in our supply chain and we are very pleased that 5% of council’s direct spend and 15% indirect spend will be with Māori, Pacific and social enterprises. These procurement objectives are a direct result of TSI’s pioneering work on social procurement, and the setting of New Zealand’s first procurement targets has been a collaborative effort from staff across council, including us at TSI.

We have partnered with EY Tahi to run a supplier diversity workshop for 80 local government and corporate buyers and clients.

Funding has been secured to scale our services across Tāmaki Makaurau and next year will be even bigger as we bring on full-time staff and expand our reach into other areas. Our certification process will be live in 2020 and we’re working towards creating an online register where buyers are able to find HWEN suppliers at a click of a button.

HWEN businesses are currently being sought to work on the 10-year Marae Infrastructure Programme and this will be vital for Māori businesses to gain increased opportunities through council procurement.

To find out more, go to our HWEN website wen.org.nz.

Māori and Pasifika Trades Training

The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) approved TSI’s consortium funding and has provided additional funding for learner support that can cover pastoral care and practical transition into employment costs.

As of 31 December 2019, 179 students were enrolled in the Māori and Pasifika Trades Training (MPTT) programme, 68% (122 out of 179) of whom were aged 16-24 years. Of the students, 128 were male, 51 female, 95 Māori and 84 Pacific peoples. There has been 70 qualification completions and 32 withdrawals.

We are currently in discussions with each CEO of each private training establishment to assess how to attract more students and increase retention.

Youth connections

Our frontline employment broker coaches have worked with 328 young people over the course of this year.

- 92 young people brokered into quality employment (28.5%)

-169 young people being actively coached (51%)

-41 Māori and Pacific young people being actively mentored, in school, toward a career in IT (note: only 3% of people in the IT sector are Māori/Pacific) (12.5%)

-16 completed their participation (5%)

-10 young people are no longer in contact (3%)

Noho marae training programme

We have run two ‘live-in’ marae-based training programmes for the construction industry, and one three-day, gym-based security guard qualification course that tied together industry self-defence training with Muaythai Martial Arts and the cultural practice of Toroparawae (traditional footwork associated with Māori Martial Arts).

The security guard course was run in conjunction with Hone Haunui-Rapana, who is a youth advisor to King Tūheitia and from Waikato-Tainui. He assisted the delivery of the security programme to contextualise and embed tikanga Māori and matauranga Māori into the project deliverables.

The noho-marae programme in October was run with conjunction with Ngati Tamaoho at Mangatangi Marae and Waikato-Tainui at Waahi Pa, and included an opportunity for participants to meet Kingi Tūheitia and be part of the poukai ceremony. We also had support from Toi Katipa from the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board area, who is a recognised presenter at Māori Television, along with Hone Haunui-Rapana (Waikato-Tainui), and Trinity Hereora-Taukiri (Ngati Tamoho) from the Papakura Local Board area.

This has resulted in:

1. Te Puni Kōkiri and MSD have partnered with Vertical Horizonz to deliver the Pae Aronui noho based programme for young Māori people living in South and West Auckland. We have partnered with Vertical Horizonz to support and assist the young people into quality, sustainable employment opportunities through employer pledged partners under the banner of The Southern Initiative.

2. Manurewa Local Board has indicated they will continue supporting these types of initiatives.

3. Seven of the 10 who participated in the security training will now gain work experience by working part-time for Cityguard in December 2019 while being paid a living wage.

Digital careers for young people

We have run two prototypes that aim to build the creative confidence of young people and expose them to career opportunities in tech. The 3 Bags Full Technology Accelerator programme received almost 100 applications for the 10 available participant places (they eventually took on 13 young people). And the Technology Mentoring prototype focussed on involving whānau in a young person’s career journey resulting in better-shared understanding of tech career and education opportunities.

Scaling out and upskilling the eco-system

We have partnered with six very different providers to understand how to best scale effective Employment Broker & Coaching services.

Shifting activity to be more data and insight-driven

This year we have invested into data and insights and focused on bringing this information to local boards. As a result, eight local boards invested in a diverse portfolio of initiatives including: research specific to their Board areas that they will use to inform their three-year plans, local community organisations skills development, technology coaching and mentoring, innovative technology accelerator training, and funds to support the pastoral care of young people to become work-ready. Each initiative has been targeted and aligned to research and will provide valuable grassroots insights and experience for us to build upon.

Sharing exchange by week-long hosting of MSD officials

We hosted policy analysts from MSDs’ Community and Family Policy Group for a week-long, intensive immersion into TSI’s work with a particular focus on young people, pastoral care, employment broker & coach, and the implications for MSD to more effectively support young people from the job-seeker benefit into quality work. This includes taking into account the impact of toxic stress on young people and how MSD can support reducing this.

We are continuing to work with MSD to explore opportunities to collaborate further on two areas of mutual interest:

1. How to support young people into quality employment and attach to the labour market;

2. How to alleviate toxic stress and promote wellbeing for whānau with children interacting with Work and Income.

MBIE collaboration on in-work poverty

We are in discussion with MBIE to explore how to support Pacific people transitioning from underemployment and under-utilisation to higher-quality employment. This will also include an investigation into how to effectively reduce toxic stress

TSI influence on the Child Youth & Wellbeing Strategy

TSI is featured in the strategy including the innovation work we are doing in the Early Years System and with Māori and Pasifika Trades Training Programme. We are also recognising strong synergies between some of the language and priorities reflected in the strategy and our own work.

Pacific Social Enterprise Talanoa Report

The report was a culmination of three Talanoa sessions with about 50 Pacific Social Enterprises. The Talanoa sessions were one of the recommendations that came from the Pacific Social Enterprise Summit hosted by Pacific Business Trust this year to give businesses an opportunity to talk more about what it means to be a Pacific Social Entreprise and how they fit into the larger economic environment. The Talanoa uses the Pacific Innovation Approach to engage Pacific Social Enterprises to understand the challenges and opportunities that sit within this space. The Pacific Business Trust (PBT) hosted three workshops to further discuss and Talanoa with Pacific Social Enterprise on the summit themes. This was the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the Social Enterprise landscape from a Pacific world view. The project is funded by the Pacific Business Trust, and the Talanoa designed and facilitated by Auckland Co-design Lab/TSI, and project logistics were managed by Bright Sunday.