Each year we gather our staff, trustees, community supporters, volunteers, parents, donors and other interested parties to share the stories and stats about what’s been achieved this year.  It’s as much for our own encouragement, as for others keen to learn about what we do, so why not put it in your diary now to join us for this Supporters Celebration Breakfast on Tuesday 21st November from 7:00am – 8:30pm. RSVP at:
https://forms.office.com/r/0hsw3nMKyu

Kia Ora,

Our September Holiday Programme bookings are now LIVE!!! The first week of the school holidays, 25^th – 29^th September.  Click on the hyperlinks below to view the brochures:

Kea (School Years 1-3) including Weaving, Swimming @ Dudley Pool and going to Willow Bank.

Pukeko (School Years 4-6) including Orana Park, My Kitchen Rules and Ice Skating.

Piwakawaka (School Years 7-9) including Mini Golf, a walk @ the Adventure Park & Hamner Springs.

Note: Activities are subject to change, due to weather, staffing or other circumstances.

Oscar Subsidy – Big Increase!

Many more families will be eligible for government subsidies from 1^st April 2023!! Click HERE to read the update.

If you have 3 or more children, you now need to be earning more than $2,697 per week to not be eligible for any support. If you have 2 children, you need to be earning more than $2,397 per week and if just 1 child, $2,98 per week (gross).  This is a dramatic increase and many probably don’t realise they will qualify, if they just jump through a few bits of paperwork. The subsidy is only for those in work or study who need childcare. Click on the link below for full information about applying for the subsidy:

Out of School Care and Recreation (OSCAR) Subsidy – Work and Income

Change in YAT Subsidy Policy

Due to thousands of dollars of unpaid debts over the years, and hundreds of hours chasing parents to complete WINZ paperwork, YAT has changed its policy to only ‘confirm’ your booking once we’ve received your completed WINZ forms. We need to sign your form, so this can be dropped off at reception anytime in office hours, and we can send the paperwork to WINZ for you. OR, once we’ve signed it, we can take a copy, in case WINZ loose it (which does happen) and you can take it all into WINZ yourself.

Your booking will sit in the ‘Pending’ category for a week, until we’ve seen the paperwork. If we’ve not seen the paperwork, there is a chance your booking will be cancelled unless you get in touch to explain circumstances: rego@yat.org.nz

A reminder that you and we often don’t find out about how much WINZ will contribute to your holiday programme fees until after the programme, so you are responsible for any shortfall to be paid as soon as possible.

Bookings

All Bookings are done online at: https://yat.aimyplus.com

Here’s a reminder of how to make a booking after logging in:

– Click on ‘Make a booking’

– Select childs name

– Choose Programme Venue: ‘Youth Alive Oscar’

– Select ‘Holiday Programme’ & click ‘Next’

– Select the programme appropriate to your child’s age & select all the days you want to book

– Click ‘Next’, ’Next’ and ’Finish’

There are 3 options for payment at the time of booking:

1. Bank Transfer (no fee for you). Please reference ‘HP’ and ‘Your Name’
2. Visa or Mastercard – Credit or Visa Debit (2.5%)
3. WINZ Client. You will need to input your client number into your profile before choosing this option. As above, it will stay ‘PENDING’ for a week until we have signed the paperwork.

Future Holiday Programmes:

• 18^th – 22^nd December 2023
• 15^th – 19^th January 2024
• 22^nd – 26^th January 2024

Breakaway Holiday Programmes Update:

Very Sadly, after 10 years of providing free activities for Intermediates and Teens in the school holidays, Oranga Tamariki has dropped its contract with Youth Alive Trust, and we no longer have the funding to run these programmes.

It is something we made a good case to OT for, and we were only needing around $18,000 per year, but they have dropped contracts with many providers nationwide.  Thank you to all the parents who wrote emails of endorsement. We will continue to use these as we seek out new funding sources, and hope to be able to begin Breakaway programmes again. If you have a rich friend of family member who’s keen to fund them – get in touch!

Here is our latest report with those parent endorsements: Breakaway Report 2022

Our social media post was picked up by two other media sources, and we’re still hoping another funding source becomes available to re-start them….

Chris Lynch Article

Chris Lynch Facebook Post with over 120 comments and over 20 shares

Radio New Zealand Article & Interview with Trust Co-Manager, James Ridpath

Any issues or questions about programmes, registrations or cancelations, please email us at: rego@yat.org.nz

Any finance questions, please email us at: accounts@yat.org.nz

Ngā Mihi

The Youth Alive Trust Team

www.yat.org.nz

Read our latest news, updates and celebrations in our Winter e-Newsletter: