Youthful focus of research

A major research project into how best to support Bay of Plenty children in the first 1000 days of their lives, and how to engage youth in the region, has identified significant opportunities for BayTrust to invest strategically for the region's future success.

BayTrust commissioned research into how best to support Bay of Plenty children in the first 1000 days of their lives. Photo: File.

'BayTrust provides around $2 million in grants to a wide range of community initiatives each year,” says BayTrust community development advisor Terri Eggleton.

'We want to make sure that our grants go to where they will have the greatest impact to help us build, strengthen and enhance our region's communities.”

'Our strategic plan identified the first 1000 days and youth engagement as focus areas where investment by the Trust could make a difference. What we needed was quality information on where investment would have the biggest social impact.”

BayTrust, in partnership with the Ministry of Social Development and the Community Response Forum, commissioned research to identify opportunities.

The research project combined local knowledge of what was happening for children and youth in the region with an expert review of national and international research on successful first 1000 days and youth engagement initiatives.

'There are many community leaders and organisations in our region doing great work with families and young people. They were invited to contribute to the project and we were delighted with the very enthusiastic response,” says Terri.

'Everyone was keen to contribute to help us understand where we could make a difference, where services could be improved, and where there were opportunities for collaboration.”

The research was carried out by the Centre for Social Impact, founded by the ASB Community Trust.

'It was an advantage to us to be able to commission this work from the Centre for Social Impact. The Centre draws on the years of experience ASB Community Trust has, as Australasia's largest philanthropic funder, of strategic investment in innovative community initiatives.

'This meant that they were able to understand what we needed, were in touch with what is happening nationally and internationally, and could provide us with an outcome that was really relevant to our needs.”

BayTrust, the Ministry of Social Development and the Community Forum are now considering how to take the recommendations from the research forward.

'We have a wealth of information and insight. The challenge now is to put this into action, starting with sharing the reports with all the people and organisations in the community who contributed to this important work. We want their feedback on what the report has identified and their thoughts on priorities for action.”

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