In 2006, as the community trust for Auckland and Northland, we identified raising Māori and Pacific education achievement as a critical long-term issue for our communities and our region. We set aside $20 million and committed to an innovative investment approach that combined both funding and organisational support. Funding was committed to each initiative for five years, and was matched by a commitment to walk alongside the teams behind those initiatives and help them with whatever organisational support they needed in order to fulfil their visions.
The investment process started by opening the door to community-led solutions. The Māori and Pacific Education Initiative (MPEI) vision—Mā tātou anō tātou e kōrero, We speak for ourselves—captures the essence of the initiative, that communities know what is good for them.
The response to our invitation for innovative ideas was a generous response from Māori and Pacific communities. We received over 300 ideas. Six initiatives were initially selected in 2008 for multi-year funding and support from the Foundation: C-Me Mentoring Trust; Ideal Success Trust; Unitec Graduate Diploma in Not-for-Profit Management; The Leadership Academy of A Company; Sylvia Park School/Mutukaroa; and the Rise UP Trust. In the second phase, funding and support was agreed in 2009 for Manaiakalani Education Trust; The Starpath Project; High Tech Youth Academy; and the Maori into Tertiary Education (MITE) student pipeline project.
Our final initiatives are the Mad Ave Community Trust’s leadership programme for young Maori women, Urutapu Tamāhine Programme, and a longitudinal study of the impact of all the initiatives.
We are privileged to have been able to support the inspiring leaders and their teams behind these initiatives. We look forward to seeing the continued impact of this work in the years ahead.
For more information about our MPEI project, click here for reports and resources.