Community Link NZ

22/04/2026

We’re incredibly grateful to the SkyCity Community Fund for backing our mahi and helping us deliver intensive mentoring, education and wraparound support to at‑risk rangatahi and their whaanau last year👏 Their funding supported the wages of our mentoring team, enabling us to work alongside more than 235 young people and families to build safer, stronger futures.

The impact in 2025 exceeded expectations, with planned outcomes surpassed across six programmes. This support of generous funders like the SkyCity Community Fund helped us mentor students in local schools, provide alternative education and intensive mentoring for at-risk young people, support whole families through budget mentoring, and rehabilitate serious young offenders.

These results show what’s possible when community funders invest in long‑term, relationship‑based support. As we look to 2026, we remain committed to expanding this impact and continuing to bring confidence, hope and wellbeing to local rangatahi and whaanau.

24/03/2026

This kind of feedback reminds us why we do what we do 💚 By supporting individuals and families to take control of their finances, our financial mentoring service helps turn stress and uncertainty into confidence and hope. Watching people move from debt to savings is real, lasting change - and it strengthens our whole community.

10/02/2026

One of our key focuses for 2026 is the wellbeing of our staff and mentors 💚 They pour so much care, commitment, and emotional energy into their mahi - walking alongside rangatahi, believing in their potential, nurturing their strengths, and supporting them to become who they’re meant to be.

We know this work comes with real mental, emotional, and physical demands. That’s why we’re committed to investing in the right training, resources, and support to help our people thrive.

A huge thank you to Living Wisdom Australia Joan Koskela for an incredibly impactful training day. Joan’s facilitation was engaging, practical, and deeply grounded. She helped strengthen our team’s mental and emotional resilience, shared tools we can use straight away, and created space for honest reflection and growth.

This investment in our people sets us up for a year of deeper impact - supporting at‑risk youth and families and creating lasting, positive change across our community.

If you’re looking to build emotional resilience and wellbeing within your team, we highly recommend Joan. ✨

lives

13/01/2026

🎉 Our Op Shop is turning one this Friday! Come and celebrate with us and enjoy some birthday fun. If you haven’t already visited our store yet, this is a great opportunity to grab some bargains as well. Every sale they make supports the work that we do to bring lasting change to local at-risk youth and families.

The Op Shop is about to celebrate it's 1yr anniversary this Friday 16th Jan and we want to invite you to join us in our celebration! Come between 10am-1pm and enjoy a free sausage sizzle and lots of goodies as our way of saying thank you for supporting us over the past year. There will be lots of other specials in store and don't forget it's also Freebie Coffee Friday with any purchase too! We hope you can join us! :)

22/12/2025

We were overwhelmed last week with the generosity of the gym members who surprised us with a substantial selection of toys and treats to top up our annual Christmas hamper drive.

BFT Hamilton East gym members and management donated 12 big bins filled with toys, kai, stationery, essential items and some thoughtful luxury extras. Every item will go directly to local individuals and families, helping to bring a sense of hope and joy at a time when things can feel especially tough.

We’re incredibly grateful to be supported by a local gym that is so invested in the wellbeing of its wider community. Contributions like this help ensure families feel seen, supported and not alone during the Christmas season.

Thank you to the BFT Hamilton East whānau for your kindness and generosity - it will be felt well beyond the gym walls this Christmas.

17/12/2025

A huge thank you 👏to Activate Church Hamilton for helping us deliver some much-appreciated hope and Christmas cheer to 130 individuals and 40 families - including babies, toddlers, primary school children, teenagers, parents and grandparents.

The Activate Church community generously donated funds and numerous bags of food treats and toys through the Christmas hamper drive they run each year with us. We’re extremely grateful to be able to share all those goodies with local individuals and families who are doing it tough.

We also extend a huge thanks to the individuals and businesses who supported us this year to bring hope and lasting positive change to local at-risk youth and families.

We wish everyone we work with and all our supporters a very merry Christmas🎅

25/11/2025

Our youth mentors are doing amazing work with some of the most high-risk and disengaged young people in our region. These rangatahi have often slipped through the cracks in education and social systems, carrying the weight of intergenerational trauma and big life challenges.

Our mentors do so much more than spend time with them. They bring young people into a hope-filled environment where they can heal, find support, and build a better future. They walk alongside them to work through trauma, move away from crime, re-engage with education, and rebuild connections with whaanau to restore identity and hope.

What really makes the difference is their consistency. Showing up even when youth don’t, standing by them through tough times, advocating for them, and going the extra mile has transformed many young lives.

Our mentors are ready to help even more rangatahi step into brighter futures - but they need more support to make it happen. If you’d like to be part of something that truly changes lives, please consider becoming a Change Driver donor.

✨ Make a monthly pledge or a one-off gift here:
👉 communitylinktrust.nz/changedriver

11/11/2025

We want to give a huge shout out to Inghams for their amazing support of the rangatahi in our programmes 🙌 As part of their commitment to be Always Good to the community and making sure everyone has access to high-quality protein, Inghams has pledged to supply us with 30kg of chicken every month. This generosity helps our students cook up tasty, nutritious lunches (like this delicious chicken curry!) and support their whaanau with wholesome meals at home 🍽️✨

We also use this chicken as part of the wraparound support we provide to students and their families. For many of our young people, having access to good food each day makes a real difference - it fuels their learning, boosts their wellbeing, and gives them practical skills they can use for life.

We’re so grateful to Inghams for partnering with us to help create better futures for young people and their whaanau. Their support shows how local businesses can make a real and lasting impact in their community.

If your organisation would like to get involved and support our youth programmes, we’d love to chat ❤️

28/10/2025

We took some time out to focus on strengthening our team - and what an awesome afternoon it was! 🙌 We had the pleasure of spending time with Tracey Olivier, a talented Organisational Health Practitioner, who took us through The Six Types of Working Genius and the habits of a cohesive team. It was such a valuable (and fun!) session that helped us understand our individual strengths, how we work best together, and how we can support each other to keep building a healthy, thriving team 💪✨

Tracey has an amazing way of making learning both practical and full of laughter - the perfect combo!

Thanks so much, Tracey, for helping us grow as a productive, happy, and connected team. We left inspired and ready to put what we learned into action 💛

14/10/2025

Having the PropertyLink workshop right next door to our youth programmes has been a real game-changer for our students! 🙌

PropertyLink is our in-house social enterprise, run by a team of skilled tradies who carry out building and property maintenance work to help fund the whaanau and youth services we provide. But they don’t just raise funds - they also generously share their time and expertise with our rangatahi.

Each week, PropertyLink Manager Allan (pictured) works with small groups of students on practical carpentry projects that build confidence, skills, and a real sense of achievement. So far this year they’ve made herb gardens, starling boxes (now beautifully painted and for sale in The Op Shop!), refurbished patio seats, and next up - planter boxes with slatted bench seats!

The students love it, and Allan’s passion for teaching really shines through. One student from last year even went on to enrol in a pre-trade carpentry course after discovering a passion for woodwork.

Big thanks to Allan for sharing your skills and opening up new possibilities for our young people 💛

30/09/2025

Looking back at our 2024 Annual Report reminds us just how much positive change can happen when young people get the right support. 💛

Here are just a few highlights from last year:
✨ We supported 126 young people through 9 specialised programmes.
✨ 24 students re-engaged with education, with 9 moving into education, training, or employment after long-term disengagement
✨ 80% of high-risk 10–13-year-olds in one programme stopped offending and reconnected with learning
✨ Our In-School Mentoring programme reduced classroom disruptions by 75% 🙌 — with whaanau noticing more confidence, happiness, and positive behaviour at home
✨ 89% of our alternative education graduates still keep in touch, showing the powerful relationships built along the way

All of this proves that when young people are given the right encouragement and guidance, they can thrive, reconnect, and move forward with purpose. That’s the change we’re committed to continuing.

📖 You can read our latest Annual Report here:https://www.communitylinktrust.nz/_files/ugd/3782c3_74f3f527b5ff4a1ca6c93a38c8625970.pdf

16/09/2025

We’re so grateful to Ryan Hamilton MP for Hamilton East for helping us launch our Change Driver sponsorship programme last year 🙌 Ryan (pictured with our GM Astra Patmore and Adam.P Photographer) was our very first Change Driver donor and since then, more amazing people have joined him in helping us support local young people. 💙

At Community Link, our programmes are life changing. We help young offenders step away from crime, support at-risk youth to heal from trauma, help disengaged young people get back into school and strengthen connections with whaanau to restore identity and hope.

But here’s the reality: there are still more young people needing help than we can currently support. That’s why we need more Change Drivers. 🚗💨

By becoming a donor, you’ll be part of accelerating real change in our community and giving young people the chance for a different future.

Find out more here 👉 https://www.communitylinktrust.nz/changedriver