LIFT Social Enterprise has had a relationship with Bounce Australia since early 2017 and currently holds the licence for delivering the Bounce Program to young people in New Zealand.

LIFT Social Enterprise is based in Hawkes Bay and has the vision that “Rangatahi in the Hawkes Bay are flourishing in their chosen career or pathway” and the mission of “100% youth employment or self-employment for the Hawkes Bay Region”.

‘[I] thought I didn’t have anything to offer but learned how to turn my negative view into a positive one.’ Bounce participant.

We work with the most disadvantaged and excluded young people to create a job-led ‘wrap-a-round’ approach that provides pathways for young people into sustainable employment or self-employment.

As a social enterprise, LIFT delivers services that have been designed by local Rangatahi. LIFT is delivered by a local team who offers a unique relatability and can build relationships and rapport others cannot.

“I have learnt how to build relationships with people.” Bounce participant.

Bounce Soft Skills is an integral part of how we work with young people. It is the first part of their customer journey with us, which provides foundational skills to Rangatahi, giving them confidence, motivation and clarity. It also helps them discover goals for their future, allows them to set a plan for those goals and gives them all the necessary skills to ensure that they know exactly where to start.

This may include setting out a plan for either employment or self-employment.

Working closely with Bounce Australia, we have adapted the Bounce Soft Skills content to ensure it best meets the needs of the young people we work with, who are predominantly Maori. By reinforcing culture and belonging alongside the core Bounce content, we get results that far exceed expectations in supporting young people to achieve the key goals on their pathway.

“The course sort of helped me to overcome some shyness, and it helped me to come out of myself a little. I enjoyed it and found it good for me.” Bounce participant.

Over the last three years, close to 300 young people have participated in Bounce with us, and the impact has been amazing. Just over the past year, we have supported more than 100 Rangatahi into employment, 35 into training and had the opportunity to successfully work with young people to address a range of challenges in their lives.

We greatly value the partnership we have with Bounce Global in supporting young people to achieve their dreams. We look forward to continuing it for many years to come.