MEDIA RELEASE - A funding injection of $100,000 from the Vodafone New Zealand Foundation is set to benefit the lives of hundreds of vulnerable young people with improvements to educational opportunities in Canterbury.

The Foundation’s Extension Partnership has granted community youth development agency, Te Ora Hou Otautahi Inc (TOHO), with funding to address the lack of resourcing in alternative education. Te Ora Hou Otautahi provides a number of youth and whānau services including school and community based youth work, alternative education, whānau support work and attendance.

The Extension Partnership grant will allow TOHO to lead a collective impact project in Canterbury, which brings together six key alternative education providers with the purpose of sharing resources and creating a new framework for the wider alternative education sector in New Zealand.

The funding will open opportunities for Canterbury youth, not suited to mainstream education, to enrol in alternative tuition based on four universal development needs; belonging, mastery, independence and generosity.

Vodafone NZ Foundation Chair, Antony Welton said, “We believe in the importance of educating young New Zealanders and we understand that mainstream schooling cannot always provide the resources required by some of our country’s young people. The TOHO collaboration initiative will develop the alternative education tools needed to ensure more young people have access to the schooling method that will help them to succeed.”

Jono Campbell, General Manager of TOHO says, “I hugely value the contribution alternative education makes to support many of our most vulnerable young people.

“The Vodafone Extension Partnership Grant offers the opportunity to collectively address the gaps, focus on what works and come up with a solution that will hopefully ensure that the wider community understands and values the real contribution alternative education makes within our communities.”

Canterbury alternative education providers involved in the collective initiative include; Te Ora Hou’s Te Kaupapa Whakaora Alternative Education Programme (TKW), 180 Degrees Trust, Te Kupenga O Aranui (TKA), with support from YMCA, Kimihia and Tumanako alternative education programme and the Cashmere Alternative Education Consortium.

Te Ora Hou Otautahi Inc. (TOHO) is one of four organisations to receive an extension partnership grant from the Vodafone Foundation. Naenae Youth Charitable Trust, University of Auckland, and Great Potentials have also received further investment to grow the impact of their work, and support young people to live lives they value.