Success Stories & Testimonials

Thanks to a strong network of New Zealand gaming venues supporting our work, each year we support thousands of worthy causes, and the work of Youthtown’s own Youth Services, with the common goal of helping young people raise their aspirations, realise their potential and have their achievements recognised. 

Whether it’s a small grant that helps one local team or a large grant that benefits a wider reach of young people, as an expert in youth development, Youthtown is ideally positioned to ensure that gaming funds are distributed where they will make a significant contribution to the recipient organisation and the community or communities it serves.

• NZ Football
• Summer Surf Life Saving Club
• Hockey NZ
• Blue Light
• Sir Edmund Hillary (OPC)
• Surf Life Saving NZ

New Zealand Football

Kiwi kids now have more opportunities to learn about football in a fun & rewarding environment, thanks to youthtown.

Whole of Football Plan

With key funding from Youthtown Inc., NZ Football embarked on an ambitious journey.

Launched in 2011, the 10-year ‘Whole of Football Plan’ is aimed to make more New Zealand youth fall in love with the world’s most popular sport.

One of the initiative’s key goals was to give regional federations and clubs the resources necessary to grow and support grassroots sport in the community. 

The first phase of this plan implemented a new Junior Framework into the majority of junior clubs nationwide, reaching over 60,000 New Zealand children.

Summer Surf Life Saving Club (SLNSNZ)

Youthtown is helping to rebuild christchurch & save lives with a new club house for sumner surf life saving club

Sumner Surf Life Saving Club rebuild

Founded in 1911, the Sumner Surf Life Saving Club has provided an important community service by making sure Summer beach-goers are safe thanks to trained patrol volunteers.

The Sumner Surf Life Saving Club was extensively damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes. For the last two years the club has been operating out of second-hand containers, with a huge amount of time and energy being put into the rebuilding project.

Hockey New Zealand

Giving thousands of kiwi kids the chance to experience, & excel in, this increasingly popular sport

Attracting and retaining hockey stars of the future

Hockey in New Zealand is going from strength to strength, particularly following its 2012 London Olympics campaign which saw the Black Sticks Women’s team take fourth spot.

 Youthtown is behind this resurgence of the sport, with its support of Hockey NZ aimed at attracting and retaining junior and youth hockey players throughout New Zealand.

In 2012, a Youthtown grant enabled Hockey New Zealand to develop four national programmes that were delivered by its associations, clubs and schools to benefit young players.

More specifically the funds received from Youthtown gave support to Hockey New Zealand’s successful Small Sticks programme, which aims to introduce all Kiwi kids (aged 4-13) to hockey to foster a life-long love of the sport. Over 18,000 children, across 84 New Zealand schools completed this fantastic programme in 2012.

Blue Light

Youthtown is helping make kiwi ‘kids smart’

Kidsmart Guide to Life 

In May 2013, 57,000 year nine students across New Zealand received the Blue Light ‘Kidsmart Guide to Life,’ thanks to funds provided by Youthtown.

This comprehensive booklet gives young people information on a wide range of topics such as alcohol, bullying, drugs, stress, eating disorders, family, legal issues, grief and loss, harassment and much more.

Youthtown is committed to supporting youth-focused initiatives that provide valuable life skills, and the ‘Kidsmart Guide to Life’ is a fantastic example of this. It provides practical, helpful information on a wide range of real-life topics to secondary school students throughout the country.

Sir Edmund Hillary (OPC)

Youthtown scholarships develop new zealand’s future leaders. 

Supporting future leaders in the Rotorua region 

OPC gives young New Zealanders a unique opportunity to learn and grow through exposure to a range of adventurous, outdoor activities that develop care and respect for self, others and place.

In 2012 a Youthtown grant of $30,000 was approved to give “future leaders” in the Rotorua region a chance to benefit from OPC programmes.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand

Vital water & beach safety messages have given new zealand youth life-long survival skills.

Surf to Schools programme

Youthtown funding gave Surf Life Saving New Zealand (SLSNZ) the money to develop water and beach safety education for school children in the southern region through its Surf to Schools programme (2012/13). This vital beach safety message reached 1,600 school students and provided each of them with survival skills that will last a lifetime.

Without the financial support of Youthtown, the cost of the Surf to Schools programme would have fallen directly onto schools and families. Many of these schools were low decile and would have missed out on these essential messages.