OLA is an Otara youth led movement (connected to the Otara Youth Hub) made up of diverse youth & young adults living in Otara & Papatoetoe who collectively have a goal to re-imagine the community they live in for the better for themselves and their peers. They are youth who have an interest in re-imagining & contributing to positive change for Otara from the ground up, who are keen to invest in their own personal growth, meet other like-minded young people while having and being an essential positive Vibe & Role model to others. OLA crew members will be supported to identify a need in their community and come up with an initiative to help. This may be a one day event or an ongoing project. By creating and delivering their own initiative, students learn project management skills such as:

- Taking collective action for the care of other people

- Understanding how to participate collectively in response to community challenges

- Undertaking planning to develop an outcome

For the whole month of November our OLA Youth Collective are raising funds to sustain the collective for 2022. These funds will also help us to support our peers who access the Otara Youth Hub. We would also like to step out next year and do more in the entrepreneur space and this includes providing small interest free start up grants for youth to try start their own small businesses in the new year.

It's actually been tough for many of our OLA Senior leads with the impacts of lockdown in our final year. We've had to think differently and be more creative and innovative in how we move forward with the new environment we are living in. We really appreciate your support.

100% of these funds go directly back to our collective, and will be held in a trust and administered my the OLA Collective under the guidance and support of one of the Collective leads for the Otara Youth Hub (The Community Builders NZ Trust).