Youth orgs are underfunded, overlooked, and expected to do too much with too little.
That’s about to change.
the problem:
If you know, you know.
Youth-led and operated organisations are isolated. They are consistently competing for limited funding opportunities and struggle to collaborate despite having similar missions and values basis. Collaboration is increasingly difficult within this environment, and a lack of shared learning opportunities is leading to youth-led organisations stagnating and dissolving, diminishing collective impact.
The needs of our sector have changed. We no longer require resistance, but regeneration.
The disruption of the COVID-19 Pandemic can be felt by young people trying to fight for change, many years after the initial lockdown. Youth organisations have struggled to recuperate after the disruption and new emerging groups are unable to reach out to networks that once provided the ability for growth.
The solution (?)
The solution (?)
Sustainable change happens through relationships, shared vision, and collective care. What rangatahi need is infrastructure, support, and community. Spaces to create, imagine, fail, rebuild, and thrive.
Gen-Z Aotearoa is building a network that centres love, connection, and the belief that young people deserve to grow in a world that holds them, not one that constantly asks them to fight to be heard.
Introducing the…
National Youth Organisations
Network & hui
What does that even look like?
We’re bringing together rangatahi from youth-led organisations across Aotearoa to connect, share ideas, and build a stronger movement for the future. This hui will lay the groundwork for a youth organisation network that empowers roopuu to collaborate more effectively and strengthen our collective impact. We recognise how important it is to do things kanohi-ki-te-kanohi (face-to-face) and with a strong focus on whakawhanaungatanga. This is about meeting each other where we’re at and getting comfortable in the space. You’ll be able to talk with other rangatahi who get what it’s like to run a youth-operated kaupapa.
Alongside that, we will be working together to create the youth sector roadmap for 2026-2029, setting the direction for the future of youth-led initiatives in Aotearoa.
The hui will be the launch point for the Gen-Z Aotearoa youth network that keeps growing and supporting rangatahi long after the event ends. This network will be a living, evolving platform where youth organisations from across the motu can share resources, find collaboration opportunities, and amplify each other’s efforts.
The hui will be a starting point, a place to gather, learn, and plan for the future. But it’s the network that will sustain and amplify our efforts in the years to come.
By creating this foundation and roadmap for 2026-2029, we hope to build a more united, impactful, and sustainable youth-led movement in Aotearoa.
We’re setting the kaupapa. And we want you there.
What will the hui look like?
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This hui is for rangatahi aged 14–25 who are part of youth-operated organisations across Aotearoa. We’re especially keen on hearing from those who are already making moves. This might be running a campaign, creating media, mentoring others, organising events, advocating for change, or just trying to fix what’s not working in your community.
To keep the kaupapa true to youth leadership, the organisations attending must have an operating body with least 80% of the people attending will be aged 14–25.
For this first hui, attendance will be invite-only among the rangatahi orgs we are already connected with. We're starting small so we can build the foundation properly. Later down the line, we’ll open it up to intergenerational kaupapa and take applications directly from rangatahi across the motu. -
Over two days, we’ll run collaborative workshops, deep kōrero, creative sessions, and strategy-building wānanga. You’ll get to connect with other youth leaders, share what’s working (and what’s not), and co-design what the future of the youth sector should look like. We’ll also be putting together the 2026–2029 youth sector roadmap.
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We’ll cover travel, food, and accommodation for confirmed participants. You won’t need to front the cost to attend. You’ll get a full info pack with everything you need to know, just show up ready to get involved.
WTH IS GOING ON? SECTION
Who are you to speak on this Kaupapa anyways? What experience do you have?
Great question! Collectively, we’ve clocked 100+ years in the youth sector and we’re still in our teens and early twenties. Our team is made up of 20 rangatahi who do a whole lot of different mahi ranging from working on campaigns to lower the voting age, to working with our local iwi, to advising international organisations on youth engagement, to running our own youth organisations!
We’ve lived all these problems before, and at Gen-Z Aotearoa, we believe lived experience is expertise.
Are you politically affiliated??
We’re non-partisan in the sense that we’re not here to play the political game. But we do believe in things like access to good education, climate justice, and equality for all.
If you’re about making the world better for everyone, you’re in the right place.
Okay but there has to be some adult or govt benefit behind this right??
Nope. Or at least, not in the way you’re thinking. They probably won’t listen. But they might. And if they do, it’ll be because this network made it impossible to ignore what young people actually need.
There’s no ministry breathing down our necks. We’re not a front for some crown entity or dusty board of advisors (the person writing this paragraph is 16). We’re here to name what’s broken, and then back the people doing the fixing (you).
Is this actually the solution?
Maybe? What we're trying to build is a long-term, sustainable solution.
But the truth is this might not be the ultimate solution yet. What we're doing is a pilot. It’s the result of thousands of hours of conversations and experiences. So if you’ve got a different idea or way forward, hit us up! This isn’t end game.
What are you doing that we can’t already do ourselves?
You absolutely can do this yourself. In fact, you probably already are. But why should you have to do it alone?
What we’re going to try achieve is a place that connects the dots, pools resources, and builds the infrastructure that gives you a leg up. We’re creating a network of support that helps you do more with less struggle.
How is this different to [insert that traumatic unpaid “consultation”]?
Real. The bar is on the floor—we know. This is not a "your voice matters" form that ends up forgotten about . We want to co-design this with you from the jump. We’ll be right in there together, listening, learning, and building this network alongside you.
