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National Hui 2022

Mentor Coordinator Hayley attended the Big Brothers Big Sisters National Hui in Wellington earlier this month; an incredible three days of collaboration, mahi and aroha. The Hui brought together staff from all 12 BBBS branches - from Auckland to the South Island’s West Coast. Thanks to the Taradale RSA for supporting BBBS Hawke's Bay with funding towards travel costs. Ngā mihi....

Outing Idea - Geocaching

Have you tried Geocaching with your mentee yet? Geocaching is like a giant treasure hunt. There are millions of geocaches hidden around the world, and heaps here in Hawke's Bay.But... what is a geocache? It's a hidden container of any size. Some are tiny and contain only a piece of paper that you sign, and some are bigger and contain treasures that you can swap. The Geocache is hidden at a particular location and you have to use your mobile device to try and find it. ...

Appreciation Event

The BBBS team were truly thankful to be able to host an appreciation event on 31 May.  It was wonderful to see so many of our financial supporters, funders, donors, and service groups, those who gift us goods in kind, our Mentor Discount Partners, and our Match Sponsors in person for the first time in a very long time!  A big thank you to Karla, Manny and Hugo who shared their Match Journey over the last three years, Paediatrician and former Children's Commissioner Dr. Russel...

Match Group Outing

It was fabulous to have our mentors and mentees together for a match outing at Velocity Entertainment earlier this month. We were able to celebrate many recent match anniversaries, build whanaungatanga/relationships, create memories and share kai. Shout outs go to Velocity, a supporter of our Mentor discount programme - for hosting our event; Frucor Suntory for providing us with water and juice, and Jan (mentor) who works at T&G - for the apples! We really appreciate your support and belief in ...

Summer 2021 - 2022 Photo Comp Entries

A huge shout out to our annual sponsors:Freenergy Solar SolutionsCrafty's Rods and GunsArt Deco TrustPlease do support our local businesses, supporting us - check out our Match Sponsors below too. Mentors and mentees alike enjoy the creativity involved in our annual photo comp and we always blown away by the calibre of the photographs. This year we had a scavenger hunt theme where matches had to submit specific photos showing them:On a playgroundOn a bridgePlaying a board/card gameWith a mailbox...

Our Impact - Annual Report 2020 - 2021

It really has been a fantastic year for BBBS, all things considered.  If you would like to find out more about successes, achievements and outcomes for the financial year 1 July 2020 - 30 June 2021 have a read through our Annual Report.  There's some fantastic feedback from mentors, mentees, families and our sponsors. You can also find out about our programme statistics and outcomes that were reported after an evaluation of our surveys and reporting tools. READ OUR ANNUAL REPORT HERE...

HB Airport Supporting BBBS

We are very grateful to Stuart Ainslie, CEO at Hawke's Bay Airport CEO for kindly donating a billboard site to BBBS for the next 3 months!  We have had such positive feedback with a lot of people already having seen it. This offer was very gratefully received given that we have found billboards to be one of the most effective ways to attract new mentors to the programme. Thank you to Tania of Electric Turtle Design for putting the artwork together free of charge, and Brent and his team at N...

Women's Self Defence Network

We were very fortunate to have Brie from Women's Self Defence Network come and deliver a course to some of the girls and their mentors on our programme.The Girls’ Self Defence Programme is designed to teach the girls basic physical and verbal techniques, reinforce assertion and boundary setting skills, and offer age-appropriate information about issues of abuse for children. Games and stories were used throughout the course to reinforce discussion and the effectiveness of the skills learnt. Bo...

Trivia Night Success

It was a night of laughter, good banter and generosity with the table of Librarians taking out the top spot as Trivia Champs!  The event raised a total of $6,898.60 through tickets for the event, the raffle and auction.  We had some fantastic auction items and raffle prizes donated by local businesses and supporters of BBBS.  Brayden Coldicutt was the quiz master and auctioneer extraordinaire, his wit and charisma adding to the success of the night.The venue, Napier Marist Rugby C...

Directions - Puberty, Resilience, Anxiety Workshop

In August Vanessa and Pare from Directions Youth Health Centre kindly came and delivered a presentation to some of our mentors who have teen or almost teen aged mentees, to help equip them with some useful knowledge, tips and advice on how to be the best support for their mentees during this period of transition. They covered basics about puberty including the following factors that can affect the wellbeing of our youth: healthy vs unhealthy relationshipsIdentity Self-conscious BullyingAnxi...

Online Mentor Information Session

Was there someone special in your life that you looked up to, that gave you their time and made you feel valued? Someone who had a positive impact on your life?Now is your chance to be that person for someone else.Choose from two dates: 12pm - 1.15pm on Monday 16 August 2021OR5.30pm - 6.15pm on Monday 24 August 2021Register here for the upcoming Zoom info session of your choice. We'll send you a link to join....

Mentoring is good for the soul and our community

The rest of New Zealand envies the Hawke’s Bay lifestyle and enormous potential our region has to offer. We’re renowned for our fertile soils, excellent climate, world-class Port, and the talented and entrepreneurial people who live here. At the same time, we locals must concede that Hawke's Bay is a community in crisis. Levels of family violence and drug and alcohol abuse are frightening. Meanwhile, thousands of young people are not in employment, education, or training, it’s no wonder em...

Mid Year Group Outing 2021

Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawke's Bay mentors and mentees gathered at Super Strike Ten Pin Bowling for our bi-annual outing this June where 100 of our mentors and mentees (out of the 146 currently on the programme) came together to enjoy a morning of fun, laughter and friendly inter-match competition. This is always a great opportunity for new friendships and connections to be made, not only between mentors, but mentees too. It is often not until we hold these group outings and see so many o...

HMNZS Taupo Tour

Programme Manager, Kath Boyd, was invited to attend a morning tea with the Chief Officer of HMNZS Taupo and other distinguished guests, including NZ Police, Ministry of Social Development, Napier City Council and Hastings District Councillors for Youth Development Portfolio, and NZDF recruitment and engagement officers. It was an auspicious occasion. Following on from this, thirty of our mentors and mentees were invited to tour the HNMZS Taupo while it was berthed in Napier. It enabled them to g...

National Hui 2021

Team members, Kath, Heidi and Bonnie attended the BBBS National Hui in Wellington last month where they got to meet Drew, the new BBBS NZ CEO), and hear from and share with other BBBS branches about the strengths and challenges that each region faces. It was a fantastic event with inspiring guest speakers such as Sir Ray Avery, Dr Wendy Kelly and Rod Baxter, CEO of the Prince’s Trust New Zealand Team. We had a great interactive session with the team from Ara Taiohi – Peak Body for Youth Deve...

Big Brothers Big Sisters NZ celebrates 25 years

Thank you to BBBS National Office for sharing snippets of the history of BBBS in Āotearoa... but to truly set the scene, it is only right to first introduce you to United States Army Lieutenant Colonel - Ernest Kent Coulter. In 1904 while serving as a clerk in New York Children's Court he delivered a revolutionary speech before The Men’s Club of the Central Presbyterian Church of New York. At the turn of the 20th Century, the American media was exposing the harsh conditions many children were...

Sponsor a Match Programme

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hawke's Bay is a registered charity matching young people with supportive adult role models. We are committed to establishing and supporting long term, consistent and meaningful mentoring relationships, making our community safer and more connected for youth.We need business support in order to increase the number of Big Brother Big Sister mentor matches in our community, so we can continue to ignite potential in youth....

An Evening with Fleur - A Fruitful Fundraiser

Friend of Big Brothers Big Sisters Susie Sturt and Board Chair Jane Dunkerley came up with a fantastic fundraising idea in December 2020 - inviting acclaimed chef Fleur Sullivan, of Fleur's Place to speak at a fundraising dinner and auction hosted at Malo in Havelock North.  We give a huge thanks to the following local businesses and supporters for their donated goods that saw a tremendous amount of money raised: Muse Art Gallery - SET OF 3 DENYS WATKINS LIMITED EDITION PRINTSNapi...

New team member and Board movements

We are so happy to have Heidi on the team!  She joined us in March and has taken to her role with passion and professionalism, ‘gaining her wings’ to now manage matches on her own.  Heidi has been working with children for the past 20 years in a variety of roles. Before immigrating from Germany to NZ she taught children English and was on the committee running a private school for bilingual children. In NZ, Heidi was a part time librarian and teacher aide at a local primary while s...

Become a Mentor - Ignite Youth Potential

Community-based mentoring helps young people to increase their confidence, develop a greater sense of belonging, and aspire to greatness. The majority of the young people who come through the Big Brothers Big Sisters programme are looking for positive adult role models outside of their existing support structures.A young person aged 6-11 is matched with an adult volunteer based on personality, shared interests, and geographic location. Once a week, for a minimum of a year, the mentor meets with ...

Summer Photo Comp Winners 2021

We had some excellent entries again this year for our annual Match Photo Comp. There were a number of categories with some awesome prizes up for grabs, click here to check out our winners and their photographs. We want to say a BIG Thank You to our sponsors that donated prizes. And the Winners were......

End of Year Outing 2020

On 29th November nearly all of our 61 matches ventured down to Ranui Farm Park for a Fun Day Out to celebrate the end of the year.  We had an absolute blast, with many children challenging themselves and trying.  Our Mentors made the most of the opportunity to be 'Big' kids for a day!  There were many exciting activities such as target paintball, a huge flying fox, Golf driving range, massive waterslide, archery, mountain bike tracks, captivating eels and Can-am rid...

Mahora School Year 6 Shop Day

In 2020 Mahora School held their 15th annual Shop Day challenge run by the year 6 students.  Teams of students decided on what activities they would organise on the day. Activities had to cost $2.50 or less and all money raised goes to a chosen charity, this year chose BBBS!   Their activities included everything from making smoothies, homemade lemonade, waterslides and many more fun things.  Patricia was invited to attend their assembly where she was presented with a ch...

Peak Trail Blazers

This year the Peak Trail Blazer organising committee, lead by Catherine Wedd selected BBBS as one of two charities to receive a portion of the funds raised from the event.  We had four of our matches; Jono and Zaine, Tom and Jayden, Richard and Jayden and Anne and Katie take up the challenge to participate, they all worked hard to train for it in the lead up and put in an amazing effort on the day.  We look forward to next year's event and are grateful to be in...

The Fashion Show

In November 2020 friends of BBBS, Di Ross, Susie Sturt, Jane Dunkerley, Marion Hurst, Andrea Napier and Suzanne Beaumont joined forces and came up with the idea to run an event to help promote 'supporting local' by inviting Havelock North Fashion Boutiques to participate in a Fashion Show which would raise the funds for BBBS.  The event was staged in the Marquee at St Andrews Cottages.  The evening was a big success, with everyone enjoying the opportunity to view the latest summer fash...