Established atop earthquake-damaged sites in Ōtautahi (Christchurch) and beyond, our network of urban farms existed to provide training and employment opportunities for Canterbury’s youth.
The Cultivate team of youth development professionals and farmers worked alongside young people and their whānau (family) to grow much more than organic produce. We enriched rangatahi (young people) with self-confidence, strengthened wellbeing, life and employment skills, and - most importantly - a sense of belonging and purpose.
2022 Cultivate Is Changing....
It’s been more than 7 years since Cultivate’s inception, can you believe it!
We’re super proud as a team and organisation to have achieved some amazing things over the years.
Our youth program has been really successful, since 2014 we have employed 46 young people through our programme, and over 70% of those into further employment or training.
At times it’s been a rocky road, trying to make the complicated puzzle of urban farming, veggie sales, and charitable outcomes fit together. With so much support and aroha along the way we’ve been able to accomplish some really meaningful changes for our rangatahi, our whenua and our community.
We have loved being able to provide our customers with fresh organic produce each week, but unfortunately over the past 12 months we have realised that our small scale model of urban farming is not robust enough for supporting our youth programme over the long term, nor a viable business in the competitive Canterbury organic veggie market.
We are currently working with the Ministry of Social Development to create a new programme to still support young people in employment giving them exposure to outdoor career opportunities.
