One of KidsCan’s projects is the KidsCan Youth Council. It is a year-long scholarship programme which supports young people towards success, leadership and community
engagement.

The Youth Council is made up of ten students (aged 16-18) from all around Aotearoa New Zealand, who have been under-privileged or come from resilient backgrounds or who have benefitted from KidsCan programmes themselves. They are young people who have a desire to help others and want the opportunity to have a leadership role in their communities.

KidsCan partnered with us to create a 3-day outdoor adventure programme which focused on supporting the Youth Council students in gaining confidence and leadership skills, plus developing individual goals for themselves.

Our instructors, Nat and Joel, took the group kayaking and hiking around Waitākere Ranges Regional Park.

They also led the group in some leadership activities which focused on understanding different values and different comfort levels within a group. For example, they were asked questions like “How comfortable do you feel in deep water?” or “How much do you value time alone by yourself?” or “How connected do you feel to your culture?”

Seeing everyone’s different answers helped the students to understand how we all have different values and experiences, which, in turn, helps develop self-awareness as well as empathy and understanding for others.

After the programme, the students gave us some feedback:

“The group activities have helped me be able to talk and communicate with people I don’t know.”

“I’ve learned to be ambitious [with my goals]. It could pay off.”

“Our hike was so hard. It felt good to complete it, though.”

Ray, the KidsCan co-ordinator, gave this feedback:

“Kayaking was a youth fav. There was a good balance of education, skill, ease, exploration and playfulness. The hike was incredible and a great challenge for the youth. [The instructors] both had a very relaxed nature which made it easy for youth to feel comfortable and safe around. Good safety and risk management. I look forward to working with Adventure Specialties Trust again!”

This article is taken from our December 2023 Christmas newsletter.

Click here to read the rest of the newsletter.

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One of our regular programmes is a 21-day camp with Year 10 students from Kings College in Auckland. The students spend the first nine days at a camp in Northland, learning bushcraft skills and doing team-building activities, like building huts together. The next five days, they work together on a sailing boat as they journey back to Auckland. Then the final section is based in Tongariro National Park, and includes a multi-day wilderness expedition that the students plan and lead by themselves.

Instructor Nathalie mentioned one theme that she has seen recurring in these camps. “A common lesson that the students leave with by the end of the programme is being open to hanging out with new people. Although they’ve spent the last year in the same form class with each other, sometimes it is only in these few weeks at camp that they students start to hang out with others that they may not have chosen to hang out with, and realised that there is something in common.”

“In their reflections, they mention no longer judging each other, being more open to getting to know everyone, even if they think there is nothing in common. They mention things like realising that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, together you’re stronger, and being more willing to trust others.”

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“It was a teambuilding exercise,” says Peter the instructor. “The brief was that each team had to make a rigid raft using both kayaks and come up with a team plan, before racing to the Avon River, paddling downstream, getting out on the far side, opening an envelope and completing the challenges on it, before paddling back upstream to their start point, ensuring that the envelope stayed dry the whole time.”

“Afterwards we talked about leadership – who showed it and how and then tried to define what leadership, in essence is. We talked about how it’s essentially an influence on an individual/group and this influence can be positive, negative, or sometimes we can even have no influence. We discussed how that means we could show leadership/influence through simple things like encouragement or support and how this could translate into other areas of life and their future careers as youth workers.”

This was an ABL [adventure-based learning] session with some first- and second-year Praxis students. Praxis is an education provider specialising in youth development. Each year, our interns study youth work through Praxis, then they come and do their practical work experience with us. Win-win!

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Our instructors Peter, Joe and Oli took five students from Rutherford High School on a ten-day Journey.

Here is a short slideshow of their photos, including hiking, camping and bush skills, river crossings, mountain biking, team building activities, cooking together, as well as goal setting, group discussions and “chur bro” conversations.

A “chur bro” is an acknowledgement to another person in the group about something good that they have said or done, or something positive about that person. Most of the students mentioned afterwards how much they enjoyed the “chur bro” conversations!

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Thanks to Instructor Kyle for these amazing photos:

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A fun, team-building exercise from a leadership camp with Waiheke Primary School earlier this year.

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