PROJECTS
Our current programmes and services
​
Boys Programme
​
Girls Programme
Friday Afternoon
Youth Hangs
KICKSTART HANGS
Kickstart Hangs are in our Kickstart Youth Space. Its open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after school from 3pm till 5pm, and is where we base a number of our programmes during the week.
​
We have Free food, PS4 and Xbox, board games, pool table, free wifi, recording studio, barista training and heaps more in our youth centre.
​
Our offices are also based from here and the venue is on Ward Street, just behind the netball courts next to Heretaunga College. Check out the map on our contact us page.
HOMESCHOOL HANGS
This is like Hangs, but its during the day and is specifically for rangathi who are doing any form of home schooling - i.e. Te Kura, or any other form of education outside of public schooling.
​
Currently this runs 9am till 11am on Thursdays from the Kickstart Youth Centre Space. All young people in school years 7 - 13 are welcome to this space.
MENTORING
As an organisation we place a huge focus on building relationships with young people.
​
We do this both through our connections to local colleges and intermediates and connections to young people in the community. Currently we are mentoring in Upper Hutt College, Heretaunga College, Fergusson Intermediate and Maidstone Intermediate schools.
​
If you need some extra help, or would like a mentor get in touch with one of our friendly youthworkers and we can see what we can arrange.
TE MANA WANUI
Te Mana Wanui is a programme developed by Kickstart specifically to develop community amongst groups of young people.
​
It involves building kaupapa, developing and strengthening relationships and team work.
​
This is done over a period of at least 10 weeks and includes lots of activity based learning, fun, small group work and of course some friendly competition.
​
​
PHOTOGRAPHY
Kickstart runs a number of photography programmes, and loves seeing rangatahi develop in their photography skills. We have a class lot of 28 Digital SLR cameras that we use to teach young people to tell their story through photography.
​
We are always blown away by the creativity and quality of photos taken by rangatahi in our photography programmes. A highlight of these programmes is always the exhibition of photos taken by rangatahi.
KICKSTART
COFFEE
Kickstart involves two things we are passionate about - young people and coffee! We have multiple coffee machines at our youth centre which provides Barista training for young people with NCEA credits (in association with Capital Training).
​
We work with schools career departments to offer barista training through their gateway or star programmes.
​
Look for our Coffee Cart at events around the Hutt Valley and when you grab a coffee from kickstart you are helping kickstart a young persons career.
​
To enquire about booking our coffee cart for your event please get in touch with us on kickstartcoffee@uhcyt.org.nz
EMBRACE
Embrace is a programme that young wahine identified they had.
It is a full day programme that covers subjects such as budgetting, menstrual cycles, conflict, relationships and includes fun active ways of delivering content, along with small groups, and a great team of wahine youthworkers sharing their experiences with the group.
MANAWAROA
Manawaroa is a life skills and self efficacy programme that we deliver to Intermediate schools in Upper Hutt.
​
We deliver this programme regularly in Fergusson Intermediate and Maidstone intermediate to the entire school community. St Josephs school and St Brendons as well as Avalon Intermdiate have also had this programme delivered.
​
Each session is delivered by a team of four or five youth workers and includes small groups, a dramatic story time and fun intereactive content.
ACTIVE AS
Lunch times @ Heretaunga College Kickstart faciliates an activity for any rangathi who would like to participate.
​
Its a chance to hang out with mates, with some quality youthworkers, and to compete. Kickstart staff occasionally loose the competitions, and there's a wide variety of activities undertaken.
​
For those at Heretaunga College keep any eye on the daily notices or socials for what is happening each day.​​
FULL DAY / HALF DAY
Programmes
Over the past year we have been running a number of full and half day programmes to support rangatahi struggling with their engagement at school. We work with groups of 8-10 students at a time.
​
These programmes focus on the strengths of the young people we are working with, and includes lots of relationship building, conflict resolution, cultural learning and awareness food, and offsite activity based learning.
​
Can include fishing, hiking, learning new skills etc. We design each programme with the needs of the rangatahi in mind in consultation with the schools.
TIKTOK DANCE
Over the last year we have developed a tiktok dance programme which uses tiktok dances as a vehicle to connect and journey with rangatahi.
​
The dance programme is faciliated by an experienced dance tutor, and we have seen good connection and rapport built with and between young wahine through this programme.
​
We work with groups of 8 - 10 young people with this programme and the outcome / output is determined by the young people themselves.
​
​
BOYS PROGRAMME
Watch this space. Coming in 2026 is a full day boys programme to complement our Embrace girls programme.
​
We are super excited about this initiative. You can expect to see some cultural awareness, real talk, physical activity, competition, and life skills that will assist young men in being the best they can be.
CAMPS & ACTIVITIES
Kickstart can and does provide support for camps and other activities for schools. We love to help with activity days, EOTC camps and other activities that connect with young people.
​
We have substantial Adventure Based Learning resources and all our staff are trained in facilitating groups.
LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
Kickstart can and does provide support for leadership development for schools and groups.
​
Get in touch if this is something that would interest you. We've worked with school leadership teams and groups wanting leadership development.
