Taimahi Trust is the Whāngarei-based organisation walking alongside young adults with intellectual and learning disabilities to grow life skills for a fulfilling future.
The trust operates under a unique model, with an approach that goes beyond the individual to create sustainable change in the wider community. Focussing on development rather than deficit, Taimahi builds individual agency and self-determination through a free vocational training, learning, and development programme.
In 2025, Foundation North approved a grant in support of Taimahi Trust’s micro enterprise enabling greater social inclusion for young people living with a disability and supporting the transition between school and employment.
Strengths-based success
Often excluded from development opportunities that enable meaningful employment and inclusion in our society, young people with disabilities transitioning into adulthood have the same desires for autonomy as any young person.
“We can now leave [Trainee] at home by himself for much longer periods. We have not been able to do so for very long before he came to Taimahi. This change has happened due to him working at Taimahi and we are so thankful for it.”
With a mission to achieve long-term systems change and create meaningful opportunities for young people with disabilities, Taimahi Trust’s on-the-job training programme takes place across their micro enterprises and is offered to young people free of charge to support the transition between school and employment.
“I love coming here because I’m treated like an adult.”
Building self-determination through strengths-based training and opportunities, the organisation’s programmes draw on their knowledge of how brains learn and adapt. By supporting young people’s practical training with an applied learning and development programme, participants develop practical, soft, and social skills across retail, commercial kitchens and cleaning, horticulture, and food production.
“We respect our trainees, and they respect us. By using a scaffolding approach, we give our trainees ownership over what they are learning. It’s brilliant as it allows trainees to build themselves and, ultimately, to develop agency. And that’s what we’re all about.”
True to their strengths-based model, Taimahi Trust supervisors have high expectations and confidence in the trainees, enabling them to engage in the development programmes without fear or limiting beliefs. Delivered through various methods, including workshops, classroom-style learning, and social activities, the trainees develop self-awareness, self-regulation, and social skills that play a critical role in enabling young people in employment and as contributing members of the community.
For the Taimahi Trust team, supporting their young people is about shifting the focus from simply getting people into jobs to ensuring they can live full, meaningful lives free from the weight of societal barriers.
Sowing seeds for systems change through community connection
Meaningful participation and inclusion in society isn’t achieved in a vacuum.
Knowing this, Taimahi Trust’s micro enterprises enable the organisation to address food waste and food insecurity as part of strengthening community cohesion.
Trainees working in the Hothouse learn sustainable horticulture practices and how to plant, care for, and prepare food for sale, with produce then being sold by trainees working at their Taimahi Fresh+ store – which offers affordable fresh fruit and vegetable boxes for individuals and families. This pathway enables the Trust to address local food needs while simultaneously growing the capacity and capability of their trainees in real-world working environments.
Oftentimes, young people living with learning or intellectual disabilities are excluded from development opportunities not because they are incapable of growth – but because others believe they are. Taimahi Trust trainees challenge these beliefs with every interaction, showing the community that they are as capable and deserving of meaningful employment and connection as any other young person making their way in the world.
Using a Doughnut Economics sustainable development approach that balances human and environmental needs in their social enterprise model, Taimahi successfully delivers meaningful development opportunities that positively impact people and planet; challenging mindsets around profit, inclusion, and wellbeing.
Holistic development supporting people and planet
For many young people, the transition from youth into adulthood is a time of great learning, new challenges, and ongoing trial-and-error. For young people with disabilities, this already challenging time can be made easier or more difficult depending on the support available to them.
“It’s definitely given myself a new sense of identity. I’ve come into my own skin and I’ve come with a new voice.”
By taking a holistic approach to the development of young adults, Taimahi Trust ensures that their trainees have the skills, experience and confidence to truly feel they have a place in the world. One that is defined not by diagnosis, or the limitations others might place on them – but is defined by themselves, for themselves.
“Taimahi Trust is one of the few locations I would suggest to give them [young adults with learning and intellectual disabilities] that confidence, give them that boost to their lives.”
