Manaaki Ability Trust

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Manaaki Ability Trust

Our aim is to instill lasting enthusiasm for personal achievement, along with the confidence and ability to live and work to your fullest potential!

Our services centre around our clients
Throughout the past 30 years we have always seen the person with disabilities as paramount to all the services, programmes and activities that we as a trust offer, remembering that it is their lives and their choice. We have worked with families/whanau and caregivers to make this happen and we believe that with our young guns programme we will see another ste

p in the holistic services we are able to offer people with disabilities, and continue the excellent services we provide here in the Hutt Valley

05/12/2025

What a day at the Manaaki Have A Go Show Grand Final!🎤✨

Our performers absolutely owned the stage, bringing talent, courage, and huge support for one another. Every single person who stepped up should be incredibly proud.

A big thank you to our fantastic judges Steve, Michael, Jel and Conrad for giving their time and energy to make this event so special, and to all our staff who worked behind the scenes.

To our clients, whānau & friends, thank you for showing up and showing love. You are what makes Manaaki more than just a community.

And finally… a massive congratulations to our 2025 winner Harry! 🏆🌟

02/12/2025

Our latest Annual Report is now live on our Website!

We’re excited to share the milestones, progress and impact we’ve made over the past year. Grab a cuppa, have a read, and see what we’ve been up to.

Link below in comments.

28/11/2025

Today we ended the week on a high with the last of our auditions for the Manaaki Have a Go Show! Our amazing emcee team and judges (Aka the Fun Police 🚓) collaborated to bring an entertaining show that kept the whole audience engaged from start to finish! 🎤👏

A huge congratulations to our finalists Janiece, Johnny & Harry who will be joining the others in the Grand Final 🏆🌟

Thank you to everyone who has performed over the last three weeks. You are all winners for stepping onto that stage with courage 💪 and embracing the “you can” spirit. Be incredibly proud of yourselves because we sure are! 🙌💖

We can’t wait to see you at the Grand Final next week! 🎉🔥

27/11/2025

✨ Celebrating Milestones Together – Our AGM 2025 ✨

Yesterday we gathered for our Annual General Meeting, opening with a beautiful karakia from Steve Kaa before moving through the formalities — and what a day of milestones it turned out to be!

We were thrilled to welcome three new members to our Board of Trustees: Pauline Prince, Karen Ross and Peter Boshier. Their expertise and passion will help guide Manaaki into an exciting new chapter.

A huge congratulations to Gabriel Tupou, who was awarded Life Membership in recognition of his incredible nine years of service on our Board. His dedication has left a lasting impact on our kaupapa.

We thanked and farewelled our 2025 Client Council and proudly announced our new council members: Christian, Jenna and Kayden. Another milestone moment for our young leaders stepping up and stepping forward.

Our Kapa Haka group delivered two stunning waiata and a powerful haka to honour Gabriel — a beautiful reminder of the strength and pride within our Manaaki whānau.

We closed the day with our annual Duke of Edinburgh Award Presentation, celebrating the hard work and determination of our participants. Bronze certificates and badges were awarded, along with certificates for completed sections. Thank you to Nina and Rob from the Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award for your support yesterday.

We also celebrated a huge achievement by Tasmyn, who has achieved her Gold Award! She’ll be heading to Government House next year to receive her official certificate — an incredible milestone and so well deserved.

Yesterday was more than an AGM — it was a celebration of growth, service, leadership and achievement across our entire Manaaki whānau. Thank you to all our friends and family who joined us yesterday. We’re so proud of everyone who contributed to this memorable day.

25/11/2025

Huge congratulations to everyone who graduated from the NZCSLW Course at WelTec yesterday — a special shoutout to our Manaaki clients Angus, Jevan, Jenna, Sarah, Lacey and Nick!

We’re sad to see the NZ Skills for Living Certificate courses at WelTec come to an end after so many years of supporting learners to gain NZQA qualifications and, for some, move into employment.

Thank you to the tutors for your dedication — we wish you all the best for the future and hope to see many of you continue in the sector.

What are your favourite memories from these courses? Share them below!

21/11/2025

Today we hosted the second round of Manaaki's Have a Go Show auditions and wow the performers really turned up the heat!🔥🔥

What an entertaining afternoon full of confidence, stage prescence and good vibes, once again making it tough for our judges to decide.

A huge thank you to all of the performers and a big shoutout to our Dance Out Crew for their impromptu special guest performance. 👏👏

Congratulations to our three finalists: Callum, Laura & Elyzah! 🎉🎉

Only 1 round remains! next week's show will certainly be another display of Manaaki talent! 🌟

17/11/2025

Our 2025 Annual General Meeting is happening on Thursday, November 27 at 1 PM!

Family, support and whanau, are invited to join us for an afternoon of fun, formalities and celebration.

We'll confirm Board members for the next year and present our Annual Report, followed by a presentation of Award certificates and badges to our Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award clients!

Our AGM wouldn't be complete without a performance, and this year our Te Ao Maori will be centre stage.

14/11/2025

What an incredible day at Manaaki's Have a Go Show auditions!🎙✨

The talent was outstanding, making it a hard task for our judges. A very big shoutout to everyone who performed! 👏💛

Congratulations to our three finalists: Becky, Jacob & Zak. Unfortunately Zak will be unavailable for the grand final, so an extra congratulations to Michael who will join the other two finalists. 🎶🏆

Who was your favourite? let us know in the comments below 👇💬

12/11/2025

We had a super busy start to our week on Monday with a VIP tour after our guest speaker. Our special guests from HVHS Tautoko- Supported Learning Centre joined us on Monday morning to see our programmes in action.

After a tour of our kitchen and Kakapo Rooms, they checked in on our Word Whizz programme, where everyone was busy putting their typing skills to the test. They also noticed our sewing machines and saw photos of the Mug Rugs that our clients made earlier this year.

They explored the art space, checking out the various projects that were underway, as well as final pieces, before heading into Geo History. Our Geo History programme was reflecting on what they have learnt about various places in Australia. Coincidentally, our guests had just been learning about Ned Kelly, and they shared their knowledge with all of us.

Our VIP had 'thebest' time ever in our Brain Gym programme, participating in a large group activity. Everyone got involved and helped out, including some very clever mathematicians who helped keep score.

We hope you all enjoyed visiting us, and look forward to seeing you all again sometime soon!

11/11/2025

How do great leaders inspire others?

This week, we kicked things off with a fantastic guest speaker—David Corner, Self-Advocacy Advisor from IHC. David entertained and inspired us with his leadership stories.

As an expert in self advocacy, David is a well known at national and regional sector events. He was a representative for international disability organisation Inclusion International, for 12 years representing the Asia-Pacific region, and in 2023 was awarded life membership of disabled people’s organisation People First – Ngā Tāngata Tuatahi.

David shared his story and captivated our audience, encouraging them to think about leadership as we call for nominations ahead of voting a new client council in for 2026

Want to be part of Manaaki's Client Council?

Feeling inspired? Nominate yourself or someone you admire for our Client Council—nominations close at the end of the week.

Who do you think has what it takes to lead?

06/11/2025

What an inspirational day at Manaaki Ability Trust. We hosted our second annual Podium Masters Speech Competition with the HVHS Tautoko- Supported Learning Centre.

23 participants spoke passionately, choosing from the following topics: 'If I were Prime Minister for a day', 'The things I can't live without, and 'Turning failure into success - the importance of perseverance"

Congratulations to all today's participants, especially our category winners, Minami, Molly and Michael. Laura, who received Highly Commended for Manaaki Ability Trust, and Molly, who received Highly Commended for Hutt Valley High School.

A big shout-out to Minami, from Hutt Valley High School, who was honoured as our Podium Master for 2025 - Congratulations.

Thank you to those family and whanau who came along to support everyone, and a big thumbs up to our friends from the Weltec NZCSLW course who also joined us for part of the morning.

A final note of thanks to our fantastic judges, Nicole Arnell, the Head of Learning Pathways at Hutt Valley High School, and our very own General Manager, Paul Mainwaring. Thank you for your support today. The competition was tough, and you both did an amazing job.

03/11/2025

What an incredible day for MANA COLLEGE Te Whare Ako, who visited us for their VIP Tour!

After a quick round of introductions, they got to experience our Brain Gym programme, who were rocking the Boom-whackers! Everyone had fun following along with the music - including the teachers!

They also explored our Word Whizz program and heard all about our other computer-based and media programmes, including Podcast 101 and Media Tech.

They also checked in on our Discovery Programme, which was starting a movie study. The group heard about the Clifton Strengths Explorer tool and how you can unlock your talents.

Next up, they visited our art space and Geo History programme, where they were learning about the stunning Pink Lakes of Australia!

We hope you had a fantastic time and look forward to welcoming some of you back in 2026!

Address

60 Woburn Road
Lower Hutt
5010

Telephone

+6445693091

Website

http://www.manaakiabilitytrust.org.nz/

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