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Coffee changed this young person’s life – a judge agrees

Kia ora!

What a year it’s been at Zeal Wellington! We’ve met so many new young people, put on some crazy events, seen young people succeed and graduate from our creative programs, and continued to care for and champion the rangatahi in our region.

We’re so grateful to all of our partners and the young people we serve who have been a part of our whānau this year. Everyone one of you is so important to us and we deeply value your connection to Zeal, no matter how big or small that may be. 

We can’t wait for 2020. We have big dreams to see our work scale across the city and reach as many young people as we possibly can. Watch this space, and we’d love to hear from you if you would like to be involved in that dream. 

A Good Story – Meet S

S joined us shortly after dropping out of school. He came to us through youth services while navigating challenges with his mental health and the justice system. The court asked S to find a few support systems to help him in order for his charges to be dropped – and one of these was our barista programme at Stories Espresso Bar

Since being part of the programme, we’ve seen incredible transformation in S’s well-being as he has found belonging and support. In fact he’s enjoying it so much we are continuing his time at Stories until Christmas and he’s even looking to become a leader here at in 2020. 

During a recent court hearing, it was mentioned S’s time with Zeal has been a major influencer in his future and the judge was over the moon, even saying, “I heard you make a mean coffee, S.”

A Christmas celebration

We planned to have summer bash at the waterfront but because of the wild weather we brought it indoors and it was epic! We had karaoke going, table tennis and heaps of yummy food (a sausage sizzle in honour of summer!). It was a great celebration of the end of the year and doing whānau together. 

Thanks for coming, Mount Cook School Year 8s!

Last month we invited Mount Cook School to come hang out in our space. 40 Year 8s joined us and the space was pumping. Table tennis and the PlayStation were cranking, as well as our creative space and giant chalkboard, which the young people (and their teachers) really got into. We loved giving these Year 8s a glimpse into who we are and we can’t wait to see them back next year when they start at high school.

Summer outings

Christmas break can be a really tough and stressful time for young people and so a group of our incredible young leaders are running a series of fun summer outings in the lead-up to Christmas. So far they’ve visited the SPCA and hung out at the Botanical Gardens and everyone’s having a great time!