Tamariki Tipu

Growing Children

Every child deserves to be seen, valued, and supported. Strong school, whānau, and community partnerships foster wellbeing, resilience, and belonging - empowering tamariki to thrive.

What is Tamariki Tipu?

For over 26 years, 24-7 YouthWork (24-7YW) has partnered local churches and schools to provide presence-based youth work, primarily focused on high school and intermediate students. In this time, we have observed the rising emotional and behavioural difficulties among tamariki, placing an escalating burden on schools’ pastoral care systems. The increasing mental health and pastoral care needs of tamariki and families require early intervention to create lasting, positive change.

To meet these needs, 24-7YW has expanded our presence-based approach used with older students to include Tamariki Tipu – Growing Children, a model tailored to support the development of younger children (Years 1-8). This expansion retains the invaluable partnership between local schools, churches and their communities, and adapts to support the specific needs of each school. Our “whole of school age” approach fosters wellbeing, builds resilience, and offers preventative care from an earlier stage. Our mission is to positively impact children and young people in Aotearoa, helping them build strong, hopeful futures. Tamariki Tipu is currently in its pilot phase, with plans to launch the full model in 2026.

Our Goals

Schools are overloaded and need support to speak to the issues tamariki are facing. Our younger tamariki also need support to develop their own resilience and hauora.

We focus on our goals using an analogy of tree roots and addressing the needs of these roots, rather than tackling the effects on the branches.

  • We get to know our young people and their needs, supporting their unique strengths and understanding who they are, where they come from, and where they hope to go with their lives. We understand their family and community, actively journeying with them in their “village” and offering our supportive voice to their lives.

  • We connect with them as children’s workers in their local school and local community, offering wrap around supports that help them to grow in a healthy way mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We work alongside whānau, hapū, iwi, educators, and other child wellbeing focused agencies to strengthen protective factors in a child’s life.

  • By knowing and growing our young people and enabling them to transition out of primary into secondary education with strong mental health and wellbeing strategies, we will see them flourish and enhance their futures.

    Our research indicates that on a day-to-day basis, there are five priorities workers in primary schools can focus on for effective growth. We would work with the school to co-create outcomes from these Five Priorities which are tailored and specific to the needs of the school, their tamariki and whānau/community.

Join us for the journey

One of the barriers we are facing is the perception this area is over saturated with “help”. From our feasibility study it became clear there is help for schools through programme- based models, but nothing that reflects the presence-based model we have developed. Programme-based models offer a fixed message for situations, where presence-based models provide a space to co-create outcomes which truly benefit the school and their tamariki. We believe a both/and approach is required to make the biggest impact.

This model truly speaks to a whole village approach of raising tamariki. We have seen and heard the need for this model, and our goal is to be pioneering and stand in the gap for our tamariki.

We are piloting in 2025. If you wish to pursue a partnership with us as we build and launch Tamariki Tipu, we’d love to hear from you!