After Step up, Speak out, a group of us community workers gathered to talk about the outcomes that we observed and how we found the experience. As much as we believed that the initiative was successful, a lot of us felt that it didn’t reach out to the youth that we wanted to reach – our young ones that no one seems to engage with. We knew that they hang out in Maybury Reserve and around the shopping center of GI. But people avoided them.
At Matariki, it seemed to be different. Because the lights are all over Maybury Reserve, the community start to engage and connect with these youth positively.
It all came together when we decided to offer soup to young people and others that attend the Matariki Light Trail at Matariki in Glen Innes. Every year since 2016 now, Rākau Tautoko coordinates the volunteers that cook and serve the soup to anyone in the community throughout the week of the Matariki Light Trail.
We use our connections, cooking and preparing soup at Ruapotaka Marae, primarily from rescued food donated by Kiwiharvest or local community organisations.
Some photos from July 2019,
Timeframe: Once a year, from 2016 – 2019
Other Key Organisations involved:
- Ruapotaka Marae
- Te Oro
- Aspargove
- Tāmaki Regeneration Company
- The HEART Movement
- Any other local community workers that participate in the year
Rākau Tautoko 