Tūtaki Youth Inc.
Tūtaki is a Charitable Trust and registered charity.
Our Vision
An Empowered Healthy Community
Our Purpose
To inspire individuals to be their best
Our multi-purpose facility, located at 88 Juliet Street Stratford, includes a training/meeting space, health room, commercial-sized kitchen, recreation area, and the Lions Den Gym & Fitness Centre. It is a place where young people and other community members can come and feel safe, interact with their peers, be surrounded by positive role models, have easy access to health and social services, and participate in activities and programmes.
The Lions Den Gym & Fitness Centre is a philanthropic endeavour developed to meet a need within the community while providing a revenue stream to resource our services and reduce our dependency on grant funding and contracts. It is a professionally operated community gym offering low cost 24/7 access to a well-resourced facility. The team are continually developing health and fitness community programmes to serve out community and delivery partners.
Tūtaki was born out of need and continues to focus on the “why” we do what we do.
History of Tūtaki Youth Inc.
Our Story
Established in 2012, Tūtaki Youth Inc. is a not-for-profit charitable organisation that is focused on inspiring individuals to be their best. It’s creation was the culmination of work done by Stratford District Youth Council as they sought to understand the needs of young people in our area.
When the Stratford District Youth Council formed in 2003 they identified the need for a safe place where young people could go and spend time with their peers and access the services they need. Youth Forums were held in 2008 by Stratford District Council and Mayors Taskforce for Jobs. At these forums the three most important needs identified by young people, for young people, were:
Having a place to go
Education, training and employment opportunities
Health services.
The outcome of the forums was The Focus On Youth Project undertaken by the Stratford District Youth Council in 2009-2010 in partnership with Mayors Taskforce for Jobs and Ministry of Youth Development. The project was staged in two parts; a feasibility study to determine the need for a youth space in Stratford and a Project Plan for its development. The Project Plan was then picked up by the founding organisations of Tūtaki Youth Incorporated Trust.
Our Current Strategic Plan
Tutaki Strategic Plan 2020-2023
Underpinning our approach is a commitment to collaborating for collective impact. From the beginning, it has been considered critically important for Tūtaki to remain relevant to the needs of the community.
