I Have a Dream launching their programme in Upper Hutt community

I Have a Dream Charitable Trust is partnering with 4 A Better City Trust in Upper Hutt to provide mentoring, tutoring and life coaching for all 135 children enrolled at Te Kura o Hau Karetu Primary School.

The partnership sees the establishment of the I Have a Dream programme in the Upper Hutt community, which works with children for up to 15 years of their schooling life.

I Have a Dream chairperson and founder Scott Gilmour says New Zealand needs a systemic change to drive better outcomes for children in high needs communities.

“Our data shows New Zealand is facing large scale social problems including the highest rate of teenage suicide in the developed world and our PISA ranking declining from 9th in 2003 to 16th in 2018.”

“We are focussed on helping Kiwi kids to transform their lives, futures, and communities. Our core long term goal is to affect positive generational change and outcomes for the communities we are involved in.”

4 A Better City chairperson Ron Vink has been working on community initiatives in Upper Hutt for the past 10 years and says partnering with I Have a Dream was a no brainer.

“We work with like-minded people and organisations to help the community become mentally, socially and economically better than before we got here. We don’t just aim to do good, but we build relationships of trust and hope with the vulnerable.”

“4 A Better City and I Have a Dream have the same goal and partnering together is going to provide opportunities and resources to children who might otherwise would struggle.”

“Introducing their programme is going to drive better outcomes for the future leaders of this community which ultimately will help Upper Hutt start to thrive.”

I Have a Dream’s programme is based on a successful US model that has helped nearly 20,000 children. Gilmour launched the pilot for 53 children from 2003-2013 in the Wesley community, Mount Roskill.

The results showed the dreamers outperformed the comparison group on every metric with more than double entering tertiary education. They also calculated a 20:1 return on investment, based on the increased lifetime earnings and the taxes paid that these higher levels education attainment will generate for the children involved.

The programme has since expanded from Mount Roskill to the Tikpunga/Otangarei community in Whangarei, working with over 900 children in the last 19 years.

They aim to scale the programme throughout many low decile/high needs communities in New Zealand. All the programmes will be strongly interconnected and aligned and have access to shared data and support.

“We’ve been approached by Iwi, an independent school organisation, two District Councils and numerous communities. We want to expand to all these places to make change happen, but we require a long lead-in time to engage each community and secure the funding needed.”

“We are on the constant lookout for like-minded individuals and organisations like 4 A Better City to collaborate, innovate and solve the social problems New Zealand is facing.”

“We believe that our child-focused, strengths-based approach, teamed with whānau-by-whānau support and community-led development, will overcome the challenges in high needs communities.”

“I Have a Dream can solve the problem of intergenerational poverty in New Zealand by delivering systemic change in communities.”

For more information about I Have a Dream go to https://ihaveadream.org.nz/

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