We need
youth
workers

I put my head to something, I'm going to do it at 100% and nothing less.
Kia ora! Ko Kelly Maipi toku ingoa. He uri tēnei nō Ngāpuhi, Tainui me Ngāti Whātua.
My name is Kelly. I am a Team Lead Operations here at Korowai Manaaki.
Most of my life I have been involved with youth, which has naturally led me into this line of mahi.
Who I am today is built up of my whānau, a bit of my sports and obviously the community that I work in.
I have two young boys, seven and nine. They really drive me to want to continue this mahi.
I've grown up in a very sporty family, and I naturally had to become sporty myself, too.
Dad coached rugby league as well and I was almost, let's say, his “son”.
I played from grassroots rugby league and touch, tag and all of those sorts of things as well.
Eventually Counties Manukau reps. And then that led me to playing for the Kiwi Ferns and representing my country.
We see it on the daily, the talent that's in this space as well.
For your average person, we always start at the start line.
Unfortunately for a lot of these young people that I work with now, they are still trying to get to that start line at this age and ... it's unfair.
For a lot of them as well, they've never been asked what their dreams are.
Speaker 2: 15 second star jumps. Ready - three, two, one. Come on let’s go! And split squats!
This sports academy is sort of a way or a path to see their potential.
Speaker 1: And uppercuts!
They're going to get into a routine, and when they leave this space, hopefully that routine sticks. Change!
Hopefully they're motivated to look (Change!) at more positive engagement out there in the community.
Speaker 1: A little bit sharper, a little bit sharper. One-two. Very good.
Speaker 1: One-two.
Speaker 1: Yep, perfect.
Speaker 1: One-two.
I love this space here at Korowai Manaaki.
I like to bring ... spark into the space too, and my own personality in this space and create a supportive and caring structure for these young people.
We're now their caregivers, or we're now looking after them so, we want to do that to the best of our ability.
So I give my all to these young people and hopefully they can go away from this space and remember all those kaimahi here that have supported them and work with them every single day to be a better version of themselves.
I wish that people understood these young people and that they are not their mistakes and their circumstances.
Speaker 1: Everyone’s moving, okay, so you got to be sharp with your feet as well, not with just your hands.

Kaiwhakaue Russ:

Rangatahi they have this hunger to consume Māori content.

So you know they're really mischief and loud and boisterous teenage boys in rōpū but if you sit down and you're telling them something about them that's inside them then they'll you can see them just switch and tune in and try and absorb as much as that as possible.

Because, unfortunately, the majority of these young people don't come from backgrounds where just that simple things that, you know, I took for granted growing up, yeah.

[Voice off-camera]:

Do you want me to stop recording?

Kaiwhakaue Russ:

Yeah bro.

One of our koro from our auahau, koro Mita Mohi, his whakatauki was, 'Ko au ko koe, ko koe ko au.'

So, 'I am you and you are me'. You know we are one so the whakaaro, the thinking behind it is, you know, you treat people how you like to be treated and if they can, if they can take that away and out there into the community, then I'll be, I'm a happy man.