In 2018 the Papakura Athletic and Harrier Club, (PAHC) Mel Tipene, Joe Tipene and Tony Tumai met to discuss their concern for our Papakura rangatahi who they saw ‘just hanging’ and not engaged. They asked the question ‘what can we do’ to make a difference for the whanau and rangatahi in our Papakura Community through engagement with sport. They presented their ‘Kuraconnect’ concept to Tony Kake at the Papakura Marae and Mikaira Pau from E Tu Whanau and together they all drew up the Kuraconnect model and name.
The first event was to pilot a PAHC ‘run jump throw’ event over four weeks to activate whanau at the Papakura Marae before their Thursday community dinner. They then approached Touch NZ to collaboratively run 2x pilot sports projects Turbo Touch at Papakura High School and Touch Rugby at Massey Park, Papakura. We knew that sport played a big part in a collective community engagement and it covers all age groups and whanau.
In 2019, the Papakura Athletic and Harrier Club, (PAHC) Mel Tipene, Joe Tipene, and Tony Tumai, Tony Kake Papakura Marae, Mikaira Pau E Tu Whanau and Touch NZ invited the extended Papakura Community to discuss this Community Driven initiative, Kuraconnect and the way forward…comprising representatives from Papakura Athletics Harrier Club, the Papakura Marae, E Tu Whanau, Touch NZ, CLM Community Sport (CLM) Papakura Local Board, Papakura Bears and Papakura Touch Rugby, Papakura Basketball, the Health Promotion Agency, Touch NZ, ACC, E Tū Whānau, Counties Manukau DHB, Genesis, Bruce Pulman Park, Counties Manukau Sport (CMS) Painga Project and Papakura High School.
We have since added the creative arts to our Pop Ups, Activations and Flagship Community Events. We want all young people to be an active part of what we do so we will be also using our events to equip/mentor and develop our future leaders in every aspect of running a community event.
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