Jonathan Usher – Chair
A Rotary appointee on the J R McKenzie Trust, Jonathan is a businessman and award-winning magician, and volunteers for community organisations in his home town Dunedin.
This is not the reality for many thousands of children and young people today. They and their
families have become locked into poverty via rising housing costs and low incomes. Many parents find
themselves
under-resourced and stressed.
The Peter McKenzie Project, a key programme of the JR McKenzie Trust, is a collective of initiatives tackling the root causes of child and
whānau poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The project has a long-term focus, and is taking an experimental
approach to systems change. Our participatory funding model allows our
Kaikōkiri, Committee and team to work together to make decisions about
strategy, resourcing, and grant making. We believe this way of working
can help us build an Aotearoa where all children and whānau are free
from poverty, and living lives full of opportunity.
"The J R McKenzie Trust has a unique identity and giving philosophy
that was driven by Sir John and Sir Roy McKenzie and which has been
further shaped by subsequent generations of the McKenzie family. The
Trust’s ten-year strategy, Te Anga Rautaki, is the latest expression of that philosophy, one that’s grounded
in respect for the mana and mahi of the organisations and
communities it supports. The Peter McKenzie Project has an active
and valuable part to play in achieving the Trust’s vision: Kia hua
mai he whenua ka toko i te tika me to pono hei korowai mō Aotearoa /
A socially just and inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand."
— Chelsea Grootveld (Ngāitai, Ngāti Porou, Whānau-ā-Apanui,
Whakatōhea and Te Arawa), Chair – J R McKenzie Trust
Peter McKenzie, a grandson of Sir John McKenzie, was instrumental in establishing and leading the Jayar Trust, which funds the Peter McKenzie Project. Peter wanted the fund to make a substantial difference to the lives of New Zealanders. He seeded the idea of spending all of the Trust’s funds on one area of focus over a period of up to 20 years. Sadly, Peter died in 2012. The project has been named in his honour.
Tokona te Raki are Māori future makers. They use social innovation to achieve equity in education, employment and income for all Māori within the Ngāi Tahu takiwā, and beyond. Tokona te Raki have looked to the wisdom of their tūpuna to create a new iwi-led approach to Māori future making. They are unweaving broken systems and imagining new horizons, driving systemic change and empowering rangatahi to enable long-term transformation. Their work is creating a world where all Māori are inspired by their futures, confident in their culture, prosperous in their careers and succeeding as Māori.
Te Ohu Whakawhanaunga fosters active citizenship – nurturing leadership in civil society for a more just world. It represents an alliance of diverse union, faith, and community groups that are working together to address the causes of poverty in families and communities in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. This approach closes the gap between communities and society’s decision-makers – enabling people to influence their own future and the systems and structures that define their world.
WhyOra works collaboratively to empower Māori career and employment aspirations. Their work is growing the Māori workforce in health, education and more, using a Māori values-based, holistic approach – creating transformational change so that whānau can flourish.
The Workshop investigates the role that public narratives play in holding social problems in place. They work to improve lives by changing how people talk about these problems. The Workshop’s research and communications advice offers evidence-based narrative strategies and storytelling tools to shift public thinking and encourage decisions that will make the biggest difference to people’s lives.
Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA) is a peak body for community organisations providing social and affordable housing throughout Aotearoa. Through its work with government, researchers and international movements for change, CHA aims to play a catalyst role, leading a collective approach to improve the housing system – increasing the supply of decent, affordable homes, especially for lower-income families.
ActionStation Aotearoa is an independent, crowdfunded, community campaigning organisation. They bring people together to act in powerful and coordinated ways to create a fair and flourishing Aotearoa for all.
The solutions for our issues lie within our community (Samoan proverb)
Uptempo is a project led by The Southern Initiative which partners with Pasifika ‘aiga (families) to explore how they direct and determine their own economic futures. The programme aims to understand what it will take – at both a grassroots and systems level – to shift the dial and create long-lasting wealth and well-being for Pasifika people. Uptempo is being brought to life in south and west Auckland alongside ‘aiga, The Fono and First Union.
Muaūpoko Tribal Authority and FinCap have formed a partnership to boost whānau Māori wellbeing at both community and national levels. Muaūpoko Tribal Authority’s iwi-led, local approach to supporting self determination and creating prosperity in Taitoko (Levin) is supported by FinCap’s national advocacy and campaigning to reduce poverty conditions. This approach builds connections between local and national change agents – and allows local issues and voices to be heard by central government.
After listening to voices from each of their 68 marae, three priority aspirations were identified. In order to realise these and build a better future for their whānau, marae and hapū, they are developing an Innovation Hub for Rangatahi within the Waikato-Tainui rohe. Their approach is based on a ‘social innovation lab’ which includes a physical space (‘aatea’), as well as a disciplined process (’kawa’) to support innovation, collaboration and partnership.
A Rotary appointee on the J R McKenzie Trust, Jonathan is a businessman and award-winning magician, and volunteers for community organisations in his home town Dunedin.
Morgan (Te Pahipoto, Sāmoa) is a senior lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington, specialising in constitutional law, corporate structure and public policy. He is a high-profile political commentator with a regular columnist for Stuff and The Guardian and has a law degree from Victoria University.
Sailau is a Samoan academic focused on sociology and criminology at the University of Auckland. She is committed to strengthening the Pacific academic and research workforce capacity and to promoting indigenous research and evaluation knowledge.
Mike O’Brien is an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland with recent research on child poverty, welfare reform, and social services. He has been committed to reducing poverty for many years and is a leading member of the Child Poverty Action Group.
Sibyl Bloomfield (Waikato Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto, and Ngai Te Rangi) is a granddaughter of Sir Roy and Lady Shirley McKenzie. She lives in Auckland with her husband and two young children. Sibyl is a Landscape Architect currently working as a senior lecturer in Architecture in Huri te Ao - The School of Future Environments at Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau (AUT).
Jay Farris is Samoan, born in Wellington, bred in the Hutt Valley, has lived in Wainuiomata for most of her life. She serves her communities through education, community development, and philanthropy.
Ashleigh (Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Whātua) is a design innovation graduate with a major in social innovation. She is passionate for Māori success, equitable design and communicating through visual mediums, and is compelled to act as an agent for change to bring about meaningful impact for others.
Lili has a great deal of experience in the education sector in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific. She has held senior management and governance roles in the education and community sectors. Before starting in this role, she was a J R McKenzie Trustee for four years.
During the last 25 years, Janet has been fortunate to have worked on projects with many organisations including large corporates, government organisations, non-profits and philanthropies. These have included management consulting, market and policy research and public health advocacy. Janet has worked with the J R McKenzie Trust since 2005 and has been PMP’s Project Manager since just after its inception in 2012.
With more than 30 years of experience in community, academic, and government roles, Christina brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our team. Her passion for building effective collaborations through strategic philanthropy and supporting community-led change.
Gael is passionate about community led and innovative solutions to our most complex challenges. She developed and led Auckland Council’s social innovation team The Southern Initiative (TSI). While at TSI Gael led a systems change approach to address the conditions that create disadvantage and inequity. Among her roles, she was a panel member on the Ministerial Review on the Future for Local Government and has recently been appointed as an adjunct fellow of the Griffith University Centre for Systems Innovation in Brisbane.
Sam Caldwell
Kathryn Nemec (evaluator)
Iain Hines
Alex Woodley