On Tuesday, Te Rourou Vodafone Aotearoa Foundation celebrated 20 years of working within our communities to create a better and more equitable Aotearoa for our rangatahi. Over that time Vodafone has invested over $47 million into Te Rourou, supporting over 1,000 community organisations. To celebrate the anniversary Te Rourou will be releasing Stories of Change, a content series profiling those people benefiting directly from its work.
Stories of Change features 20 community groups and individuals from across the motu, highlighting the young people that have or will change Aotearoa for the better. These stories will be available through our microsite (linked here) and released daily throughout the Vodafone Instagram and Facebook pages.
One such story comes from Bianca Johanson, Youth Strategy and Development Coordinator at Lifewise. Te Rourou Foundation has been a long-term partner of Lifewise and supported Manaaki Rangatahi with more than $300,000 in grants. “My mahi is focused on strategy and prevention. It’s about making long-lasting change for future generations,” says Bianca.
Other voices highlighted within our Stories of Change content include:
- CEO of The Billy Graham Youth Foundation, David Graham who supports over 1,400 young people every week to reach their full potential through sports.
- Mapihi Kahurangi Davis, who is working to develop a hapū led, iwi supported future skills hub for rangatahi in Murihiku Southland.
- And Elliot Taylor, Founder and CEO at ThroughLine, a social enterprise providing mental health crisis care for global online communities.
Lani Evans, Head of Te Rourou, Vodafone Aotearoa, reflects on the past 20 years. “This is an incredible milestone for our organisation to celebrate – 20 years of contribution to the community in Aotearoa and to generating better outcomes for our young people. We’re also so pleased to release Stories of Change, which gives our team, our stakeholders, and our community a physical record of the Foundation’s impact. As a text, it holds a lot of sentimental value for me.”
For more information on our 20 Stories of Change, please visit 20years.terourou.co.nz.
