How do we better connect young people with meaningful, sustainable work—and build the systems that truly support that journey?

Join public policy researcher Max Rashbrooke and a regional, cross-sector group of funders, youth service providers, employers, government representatives, and researchers for a focused conversation on how Aotearoa’s work and support systems can better serve both people and place.

Max’s recent report, The Pipeline of Potential, shows how today’s welfare-to-work system is letting too many people down, and sets out practical, evidence-based ways to fix it - from guaranteed jobs and community-led services to new forms of peer support.

While the report is broad in scope, Stand Tall is convening this conversation with a deliberate focus on youth. Not because the report is only about young people, but because the challenges it identifies are deeply visible in the journeys rangatahi face every day. We believe that young people’s experiences offer a valuable lens for understanding the system’s gaps and where innovation might take root.

As a relatively new organisation exploring the link between youth entrepreneurship and employment pathways, Stand Tall sees this event as a step toward building shared understanding and deeper collaboration. We don’t want to complicate things, we simply want to ask: What would it take to respond more coherently and more collectively?

This event is a chance to:

Hear directly from Max about the report’s findings and ideas
Reflect together on what this means for young people in our region
Share local insights from practice, research, and lived experience
Explore what collaboration could look like in shaping the next phase of work

If you’re working to support young people, enable equity, or reshape the way we do things, we hope you’ll join us for this timely and important conversation.
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Note: Parking is plentiful outside the venue.