An Educational Environment for Community Resilience & Wellbeing Our immersive learning experiences inspire new perspectives and provide skills to enable youth to facilitate resilience and wellbeing for themselves and their communities.

The Learning Environment is a unique and multidisciplinary educational charity demonstrating a model for global impact, on the banks of the mighty Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand. With 178 acres of lush farm-forest, this diverse ecological playground features wetlands, regenerating forests, springs, and permaculture food system. The ancestors who hold the wisdom and mana of this place are Te Atihaunui a Pāpārangi, Ngā Paerangi and Ngā Rauru.

The ecological spaces act as outdoor classrooms, which are complemented by off-grid infrastructure: roads, solar power, water systems, a native tree nursery, tool sheds, a hot house, sheltered areas, fire circles, campsites, and ablutions.

Over the past three years, our highly skilled professional team has been regenerating the land’s waterways and soil with great care. We’re engaging local communities through working with hapū, iwi, marae, schools, education providers, local and regional councils, community organisations, and international programmes. We’re building a strong network to support resilience through collaboration locally, nationally, and internationally.

Image: Tū Manawa Ora - Youth Empowerment Camp

Our Theory of Change We are nested in, informed by, and in relationship with place (bioregion) and the people of place (community, iwi, hapū). Our mahi (work) and Organisation are led by the stories, needs and aspirations of the place we reside, and our community.

Our Organisation is creating a "Learning Environment" - a built and biological environment that is intentionally designed to enhance and enable Learning (from visitors and volunteers to multi-day courses).

The health of the "Learning Environment" is dependent on the health of the Organisation, is dependent on the health of Place and Community, and vice versa.

Within the Learning Environment we facilitate multidisciplinary learning experiences that engage the whole person, empower learners, and offer opportunities to develop skills to navigate our changing times including preventative mental health, working together, bioregional and regenerative land care and growing food.

Our learning experiences enable learners of all ages to return to their communities to work on the ground and bring about locally-specific Equity, Resilience & Wellbeing.

Our Impact Stories

Learning Experiences We run a range of programmes including:

• Rangatahi (youth)
• Community Education
• Global programmes - Here is a blog from our Earlham College intern.

Our target group is our future leaders, especially rangatahi (young people) 16-24 years. We need to support our youth right now. In NZ, the number of young people diagnosed with mood or anxiety disorders has more than doubled in 10years; from 9.9% in 2012, to 24.6% in 2022 - Ministry of Health, NZ.

In February 2023 we hosted a 7day empowerment and leadership camp for rangatahi (youth) called Tū Manawa Ora. In this video you can listen to the youth share their experiences of mental health challenges right now and the impact of this camp.

“The teachings here are actually getting me rooted back into my tūpuna. I feel like I’m reconnecting with my ancestors, which is something that I’ve really struggled with” - Timara Wallace, Ngāti Ruaka, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi, Tū Manawa Ora Camp Participant

Image: Long Island University visit

Image: Native Seedling Community Course ~ Reconnecting to Land & Water The health of the people is intrinsically connected to the health of the land. We are:

• Growing eco-sourced native trees in our nursery (47,000 grown since 2023)
• Planting trees on the land and in the community
• Eradicating pest species through traplines and hunting (502 pests controlled since 2022)

This video is from our August 2023 community tree planting celebration where we asked "what does our community need to thrive?"

Image: Welcoming circle at Tree Planting Ceremony

Image: Pest Control Trap Building Workshop ~ Regrowing our Relationship to Food Creating opportunities for our community and visitors to remember the relationship we have with our foodscapes.

The food from the veggie gardens and orchards is distributed out to our community via self-harvest, courses and through local food service providers (eg food banks, and public community pantries). Last year we donated 5,500kg of fruit and vegetables and gifted 400 seedlings.

In April 2024 we hosted a Harvest and Wellbeing Celebration. The intention was to acknowledge the season, share food with the community and receive wellbeing offerings eg massage, workshops, and games.

"A great day and such a beautiful kaupapa to bring people together and build community connection and resilience. More of this is needed. Learning Environment has been so valuable to this community and you provide the energy and vibrancy which is needed. So looking forward to more ways we can work together that is joyful and intentional. Mauri ora ki a kaautau." - Te Ao Hou Marae about the Harvest Celebration.

Image: Harvest gifted to community from our Harvest Celebration

Image: Volunteers harvesting food from the garden

Your support in this project will go to:

• Regenerative land care - restoring our waterways and forest through tree planting, weed and animal pest control, water testing, growing high quality and diverse food
• Learning Opportunities - developing course content and infrastructure to enable more opportunities for our local and global community to participate in our courses

You can follow our stories and updates on Facebook and Instagram. Please reach out if you have any questions. We look forward to you visiting us one day.