Life changing tools for marginalised youth

Kia ora! My name is Kristina Cavit and I am the founder of The Kindness Institute, a charitable trust that supports marginalised youth to transform their own lives through Mindfulness, yoga and stress management tools. Our program for marginalised youth is called ATAWHAI (Maori for kindness). Through it, rangatahi learn to deal with challenging emotions, conflicts, forgiveness, honest communication, empathy, focus, motivation, positive decision making and positive relationship skills. We show kids how to get peace & love on the inside. If there’s no peace or love on the outside, what’s going on inside is something that no one can take away from them.

100% of the rangatahi (youth) in last year’s program reported a reduction in stress and an increase in focus, calmness, connection and trust. We think these results can't be ignored, given our country’s teen suicide rate and the fact that many of our young people have little access to mental health support.

We are running ATAWHAI throughout the year but we need help to fund it. Our rangatahi are marginalised youth with low self-efficacy but lots of potential. Rangatahi are recruited from community partners, low decile schools and corrections programs.

We’ve accomplished a lot in the last year with a small but perfectly formed crew of volunteers. Funds raised will be used to cover costs for transport, food for the youth, venue, educational resources and koha for kaimahi & the youth mentors that help us run ATAWHAI. 100% of funds donated will go to this program.