Skip over main navigation
  • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
Great Potentials Foundation
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin
  • Email
Donate
Menu
  • About us
    • Our Mission
    • Our Story
    • Our People
      • Board
      • Leadership Team
    • Latest
      • News Stories
      • HIPPY Stories
      • MATES Stories
      • Family Centre Stories
  • Programmes
    • HIPPY - Home-based preschool education
      • HIPPY Programme
      • HIPPY Stories
      • HIPPY Locations
      • HIPPY Statistics
      • HIPPY LOGIN
    • MATES - Mentoring & Tutoring
      • MATES Programme
      • MATES Stories
      • MATES Team
      • Become a mentor
      • MATES Statistics
      • MATES LOGIN
    • Family Service Centres
      • Family Service Centres
      • Papakura Centre
      • Takanini Centre
      • FSC Team
      • Family Resources
      • Facts & Figures
    • Papakura Early Learning Centre
      • What We Offer
      • Our Curriculum
      • Our Team
      • Contact Us
  • Impact
    • The difference we make
    • Facts and figures
    • Published reports
    • Annual reports
  • Get involved
    • Donate
    • Become a mentor
    • Work for us
    • Leave a legacy
  • Supporters
    • Community Funding
    • Corporate Sponsorship
    • Government Funding
    • Individual Donors
  • Contact
    • Contact Details
    • Make an enquiry
    • HIPPY Contacts
    • MATES Contacts
    • FSC Contacts
  • Admin
    • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
  • Our Mission

Our Mission

HIPPY facilitates Intergenerational change

  

Great Potentials Foundation is a charitable trust for the promotion of education and parental support.

We are in communities that need help to unleash the potential of their children, young people and parents. At Great Potentials we are working for and with children, young people and families to promote family function, relieve suffering, release potential, reduce disparities in New Zealand society, reduce crime and violence and break the cycle of disadvantage.

Every child matters

Our purpose is a broad one - Helping children, young people and families towards brighter futures.

   

We focus on key points of transition
in people's lives:
  

Through our we help parents make the transition to ‘conscious parenting’, helping them develop the empathy and the practical skills necessary for their children to thrive.


MATES Junior
Through – our Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters – we help parents become their child’s first and most important teacher, in preparation for the transition into school and the child’s pathway through education.

 

Through   – our Mentoring and Tutoring Education Scheme – we help young people make a secure transition into secondary school and to make the transition into tertiary study, training or employment.

   

We are there to help

Why we do what we do:

Great Potentials Foundation was founded in response to the troubling fact that a large percentage of New Zealand's children and young people are on the path to a relatively dismal future, through a variety of circumstances, encapsulated in the word “disadvantage”.

For over 30 years we have introduced, developed and managed programmes focused on breaking cycles of disadvantage and unleashing potential for our most at-risk families and youth. We are committed to helping children, young people and families towards brighter futures.

  

Behind every number is a life


"We see miracles."

We have the privilege of hearing the stories from people whose futures have taken a different track as a result of participating in our programmes - young people, children and parents have seen their lives change...

At our 30-Year Anniversary Celebration, our founder, Dame Lesley Max said:

“Why does Great Potentials Foundation exist? Because I could not stand the level of child abuse and neglect in our beautiful country… and because I abhorred the waste of human potential, through failure in education.

MATES Senior Graduation 2020“Great Potentials Foundation works at key points of transition – to becoming nurturing parents; to entering primary school; entering secondary school and entering tertiary study.... We are effectively addressing poverty and inequality.

“We see miracles.  The mother of six, who had three taken away from her because she was no mother, was able, through HIPPY, to prepare her youngest for a triumphant start in school.  The turning point was her revelation thanks to HIPPY that, in her words, 'You’re supposed to talk to them!'

“We have the joy of seeing men whose lives have been blighted through gangs and prison, becoming responsible fathers.

“We’ve seen a depressed, poor mother-of-ten being inspired by seeing her little boy graduate from HIPPY in a little mortar-board and gown, and thinking, maybe I could graduate. 

"She gained a degree and became Head Teacher in an early childhood centre.Wellington and Citizen Tamatimu - MATES Alumni

“We have the joy of knowing that our MATES mentees are graduate engineers, lawyers and Parliamentary officials.  We have two MATES mentors in our current Parliament…

“We’ve shown how a modest neighbourhood family centre can help, heal and motivate.
We’ve shown how to release the power of low-income parents to enable their children to succeed at school.

"We’ve shown how to release the altruism and energy of university students to help young people achieve.”

     

We are so proud to support these children, young people and families.

     

The future is brighter for these New Zealanders, thanks to the support from so many, and we look forward to continuing our path from strength to strength.

DISCOVER OUR STORIES

HIPPY STORIESMATES STORIES FSC STORIES

      


Dame Lesley Max at GPS 30th Anniversary Celebration
  

"We’ve shown how to release the power of low-income parents to enable their children to start school in great shape.

We’ve shown how to release the altruism and energy of university students to help young people achieve.

Now we need to scale up even further to reach more people who need us and contribute even more to our beautiful Aotearoa New Zealand in the years ahead."

— Dame Lesley Max, Founder and Co-Chair

    

  

We greatly value the support of those who share our concerns and who enable us, through their contributions of funding and personal efforts, to work towards our vision:

"Well-nurtured children and young people, in well-functioning families, contributing to safe communities and a prosperous nation...."

You can help us make a difference.

Donate

Published: 18th February, 2020

Updated: 8th October, 2021

Author: Simone Graham

Share this page
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Latest

  • MATES Mentees exploring the world of architecture and design

    MATES Mentees exploring the world of architecture and design

    Sixteen MATES Senior Mentees from Southern Cross Campus, Waitakere College and Auckland Girls Grammar School had a wonderful time visiting Jasmax...

  • A surprise for children turning five

    A surprise for children turning five

    To celebrate our children who turn five years old and get them ready for school, our Papakura Early Learning Centre has recently connected with School Start First Impressions...

  • Youth mentoring online workshop inspires young people

    Youth mentoring online workshop inspires young people

    Recently, our two MATES coordinators attended an online workshop “Sharing the Kaupapa 3 Whai Wāhitanga: Active Youth Participation...

  • MATES Mentor Induction 2022

    MATES Mentor Induction 2022

    Nearly 65 university students have started as our MATES Mentors 2022...

Most read

  • HIPPY Locations

    Locations and contact details for HIPPY sites around New Zealand

  • HIPPY Programme

    HIPPY Programme

    HIPPY is a home-based Early Learning programme that helps parents from disadvantaged communities lay the foundation for their children’s success in school and later life...

  • Become a mentor

    Become a mentor

    If you are a tertiary student in Auckland and are interested in becoming a MATES mentor, please complete the online application form...

  • Community Funding

    We are immensely grateful to all of our supporters who contribute in various ways to Great Potentials Foundation. Your generosity truly impacts the lives of children, young people and families propelling them towards brighter futures.

  • MATES Programme

    MATES Programme

    MATES Mentoring and Tutoring programme addresses the underachievement in education of disadvantaged youth in New Zealand, intervening at key transition points to create pathways for success...

  • Contact Details

    Contact Details

    Address and contact information for Great Potentials Office and programmes

  • Our Mission

    Our Mission

    Working for and with children, young people and families to promote family function, relieve suffering, release potential, reduce disparities in New Zealand society, reduce crime and violence and break the cycle of disadvantage...

  • Work for us

    Work for us

    Situations vacant at Great Potentials Foundation

  • Family Service Centres

    Family Service Centres

    Our Family Service Centres assist the community with housing, food, health care, employment support and wellbeing services as well as offering early learning services, parenting programmes, playgroups, social workers in schools, counselling and more...

  • Takanini Family Service Centre

    Takanini Family Service Centre

    Family Service Centre Takanini opened its doors in January 2014. Our warm, colourful new Centre was established in partnership with the Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association, whose superb early learning centre provides a beautiful environment for the local children.

Tag cloud

Early Childhood Education Te Whaariki

Keep me informed

Please enter your first name
Please enter your last name
Please enter your email address Please enter a valid email address (e.g. [email protected])
  • Sitemap
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Great Potentials Foundation is a Registered Charitable Trust with approved donee status - CC32333