Tēnā koutou katoa,
As we move through this time of renewal, I’m encouraged to pause and acknowledge the season just passed — one of deep learning, meaningful connection, and steady action.
CSI believes that now is the time to turn to each other, honour our past, understand our shared reality of the present, imagine our desired future, agree on common ground and continue to take collective action.
In many ways, the past quarter has been about honouring what came before, grounding ourselves in the present, and taking the first steps toward what’s ahead. With our Exploring the Core Skills Toolkit webinar series held recently, two successful inaugural events delivered for our communities, and our hauora nurtured through Tuihana Ohia’s ongoing Hauora by the Seasons series, we’ve experienced a time rich with wānanga, momentum, and growth. We also marked a leadership transition in the sector, a heartfelt farewell to Peter Tynan and a warm haere mai to Dylan Lawrence.
In this edition of The Dial, we’re excited to share new opportunities, resources from Te Pūaha o Te Ako, updates from across the sector, and insights from our recent in-person systems change events.
Karinia Lee, Head of Centre | Kaihautu
Centre for Social Impact
Te Pūaha Talks – what’s next on the calendar?
Tuihana Ohia’s ongoing series of quarterly wellbeing webinars continues. Each workshop draws on mātauranga Māori to acknowledge the changing seasons and how each season brings new opportunities to nurture our wellbeing.
Hauora by the seasons: Kōanga to Raumati – spring to summer
Tuesday 25 November from 10am – 11.30am
The mahi of Kōanga leads into the plenty of Raumati, a time of celebration and joy. Crops are ripening, kai is plentiful, and everyone is working to stock up food stores. This is a time to acknowledge the gifts of connection to whānau and taiao, to create memories that will sustain us in the year ahead
Register now
Latest webinar recordings and resources
Missed one of our Te Pūaha Talks webinars? Full webinar recordings and associated resources can be found in Te Pūaha o te Ako – The Knowledge Hub.
Hauora by the seasons: Takurua to Kōanga – winter to spring
Temperatures start to rise, and the days become longer as the Takurua moves into Kōanga. As we come out of the darker months and the world awakens, it is time to nourish ourselves see what is asking to grow within you, and nurture this.
Watch the recording
Exploring the Core Skills Toolkit
Over the past few months, Kathryn Nemec has been joined by various CSI Associates as part of an ongoing series exploring each element of the Core Skills Toolkit in more detail.
Webinar recordings and resources cover:
- Te Tiriti o Waitangi
- Community engagement
- Strategic planning
- Evaluation and measuring impact
- Communicating your work
- Working in a culturally responsive way
- Wellbeing / Hauora
The Core Skills Toolkit is a collection of practical, easy-to-use resources and insights curated by CSI to help new and small community groups and not-for-profit organisations thrive.
Future Search training – a pathway for systems transformation
The opportunity to take a three-day journey of curiosity, discovery and growth brought 39 experienced facilitators together in West Auckland in August. The occasion; the first training event in Aotearoa for facilitation of the globally recognised Future Search principles-based approach to action planning. The training was offered by the Centre for Social Impact (CSI), in partnership with the global Future Search Network (FSN), and drew on the extensive Future Search experience of CSI Associate and Future Search trainer, Miranda Cassidy-O’Connell.
“We had facilitators from a really diverse range of backgrounds, all dealing with complex systems and challenges,” Miranda says. “At a time when the social impact community is increasingly focused on systems transformation, the purpose of the training was to build a strong cohort of certified Future Search facilitators who can help “bring the whole system into the room’ and bring people together to find and act on common ground.”
Read the full article
Future Search training – what our participants said
“A powerful yet simple way to find common ground within complex systems that honours perspectives, voice groups and history whilst inviting future focused actions on collective agreements. Kotahitanga in embodied action.”
Healing systems and whole system collaboration - hui
Connection, healing and coherence are the foundations of systems change work. Our September hui brought around 80 people to Te Mahurehure Marae to explore why and how to bring connection, healing and coherence into systems change work. We were fortunate to be able to draw on John Kania, founder of the Collective Change Lab (CCL), and colleague Laura Calderon de la Barca to open the event alongside our Associate (and CCL senior Associate) Louise Marra. John, one of the authors of The Water of Systems Change, set in place some foundation stones for the day’s korero, identifying three elements at the heart of healing-centred systems change; placing the lens of trauma and collective healing at the centre of the work; acknowledging that unresolved trauma is the root of what ails us, that if people are traumatised, systems are; and shifting from trauma-led to healing-led systems.
Systems change masterclass - Haumanu practices
The Haumanu practices masterclass with Louise Marra, Tuihana Ohia and a group of Haumanu coaches took 40 participants deeper into the ‘how’ of bringing healing into their system change mahi.
The Ata model was introduced as a way of building connection and coherence within a group, allowing the group to collectively feel and integrate collective trauma, and generate ‘the new’ and the conditions to bring the new into being. The role of the central nervous system in how we receive, process and respond to sensory information was explored to provide insights into how to cultivate physiologies of calmness and safety in individuals, in groups and in social systems.
Each participant received a Haumanu rourou (basket) to help them take this work into their organisations and workplaces.
The open, authentic sharing and connections across the participants was really something special! Ngā mihi aroha. This LinkedIn post from Brook Turner captures the spirit of the day.
Volunteering Changemakers Hui
This conference is designed to provide capability development support for people engaging and leading volunteers, and provides an opportunity to come together with peers, to share in learning, and be inspired.
With great speakers, facilitated discussions, workshops and networking, you won't want to miss this event.
Key content includes:
- Leading Change Together
- Best Practice in Action
- Designing a best practice volunteer programme
- Navigating conflict in volunteer management
- Critical skills to sustain your passion
Learn more
Summary programme
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Evaluation reports – Mixit and Te Ngākau Kahukura
Two important evaluation reports commissioned from CSI have recently been published.
Since 2006, Mixit Charitable Trust has been bringing young people in Auckland with refugee backgrounds together with local and migrant youth to mix it up in creative projects. Interest from former refugee youth in settlement areas across New Zealand saw Mixit launch its Aotearoa Outreach Programme in 2022. CSI’s report for Mixit reviewed Mixit’s context, activity and impact between 1 April 2022 to 31 July 2025. The report is available on the Mixit website.
Te Ngākau Kahukura works to make communities, environments and systems safer and more inclusive for rainbow people. Six years on from its establishment, Te Ngākau Kahukura sought an evaluation report from CSI of what it has achieved, its role in the rainbow support eco-system, its strengths and anything it can do to improve.
Foundation North annual report 2024 / 2025
Navigating Together: Relational Connection is the theme of this year’s annual report from our Foundation North whānau. The report includes impact highlights, four stories that illustrate the Foundation’s grants in action, and how the Foundation is achieving impact beyond grantmaking – including through CSI as its social business.
“Analysis of our funding activity across our four focus areas reveals good progress towards achieving the kinds of impact we all want to see in our communities. Trustees are equally interested in ways the Foundation can be impactful through our non-funding activities, using all of our organisational levers in support of system change goals…” Michelle Tsui, Chair