Our kaupapa began in January 2022, as a grassroots, volunteer group of care experienced rangatahi studying at uni in Aotearoa New Zealand. We were curious about why there wasn’t more support available to care leavers to guide us in our study, and to access all that tertiary education has to offer.a

TE4CL was born out of recognition that other countries support care leavers into tertiary education a lot better than New Zealand does. Currently a large number of barriers exist for care leavers accessing tertiary education, both individual challenges (such as funding) as well as broader societal challenges (such as stigma). Instead of reinventing the wheel, we looked at what was already available and planned the best ways to connect and strengthen what already existed. Here’s our journey and impact to date:

We gained an understanding of the level of support provided for care leavers entering tertiary education in New Zealand and the shape of the sector. We did this through desk research, stakeholder mapping, a two-page call to action and an example website based on a fictional entity called Amanaki.

January - March 2022

April 2022

We held meetings with stakeholder groups such as Oranga Tamariki, the Tertiary Education Commission and VOYCE Whakarongo Mai, and shared our Call to Action with tertiary institutions we had direct connections to (Otago University, Auckland University & Victoria University of Wellington). Then we developed individual plans of action with different agencies.

April - August 2022

We progressed plans with key partners like Oranga Tamariki where we produced a pamphlet for their support workers and talked through how to improve their web resources. For the Tertiary Education Commission this involved providing feedback on their draft report and them including our Amanaki website as an Appendix. For VOYCE Whakarongo Mai we adapted our pamphlet to improve support for care leavers.

August - December 2022

We focused on how to build consensus and support from tertiary institutions themselves to provide better support for care leavers, and prepared steps, summaries and case studies for different stakeholders.

In December 2023 we were excited to receive seed funding to formalise our initiative into a registered charity, recruit a small operational team, and start scaling up our plans. In December 2024 we hosted a private event in Pōneke Wellington to celebrate the launch of our charity, and its new name and logo, TE4CL - Kia Eke.

2023 and 2024

Some of our impact to date:

• We are working with the University of Otago to introduce specially trained kaimahi who support care-experienced learners. We’ve also supported Otago to add a tick-box on their enrolment forms so care-leavers can self-identify and access tailored support, including help with study, finances, scholarships, accommodation, and other resources.

• We have partnered with the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) to develop clear information guidelines for universities. TEC has also committed to producing a video sharing the lived experiences of care-experienced learners, which will be made available to all tertiary education providers.

• We have connected Oranga Tamariki, through their Transition Support Services, to partner with universities including Otago and AUT to provide staff training, so tertiary staff can better recognise and meet the needs of care-experienced students.

• We have partnered with VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai and other partner organisations to develop and pilot a schools-based initiative aimed at reaching caregivers, deans, teachers, and school counsellors with information and tools to better support care-experienced tamariki.