JUNE 2016

Showcasing Social Enterprise

in Aotearoa New Zealand

Transition
not-for
-prots

Community
enterprises

Joint
ventures

Social
business
start-ups

Mori
enterprise

Impact magazine is an
occasional series highlighting
the incredible achievements of
the long-standing and rapidly
growing social enterprise sector
in NewZealand.
Issued by kina Foundation, it
features interviews with social
enterprise leaders around the
country and shares insights
into ways to help advance the
sector.
This edition features Patu
Aotearoa, an organisation that
kina has worked with since
2014.

Levi Armstrong
with basketball

A fitness gang fighting obesity Patu Aotearoa

The Patu concept is a national
social franchise model for a group
exercise programme designed for
Mori and Pasifika.
When Levi Armstrong says Patu Aotearoa is a
gang, he knows what hes talking about he
grew up around gang members, with his father
and uncles in the Hastings Mongrel Mob.

He started a degree in sports and recreation

at the Eastern Institute of Technology at the
age of 20.
My daughter was born in my third year so
I was studying and working part-time and
being a dad it was a lot of work.
Levi says it wasnt until his last semester of
his third year of study that he found what he
wanted to focus on Mori health.

You cant separate yourself from your whnau.

Its not great being labelled as a gang affiliate Through my studies and my experience
working at a gym, I identified where the gap
because we have family members in gangs,
was, where there was the most need. I was
but we know were making a difference.
shocked at the health inequities Mori and
Pacific Island people face. We started trialling
And that difference, Levi says, is this gang is
our approach with whnau coming into the
gym straightaway and got positive responses.
about fighting obesity through health and
fitness.
Levi says its hard for people to understand
gangs if you havent been part of it. His own
father joined a gang when he was 16.
My dad had nothing and was looking for
a group of mates. And thats what were
trying to create at Patu an alternative
brotherhood for rangitahi (youth) who are
looking for a family.
Patu is our own gang, with our own patch,
our own clubs around the motu (island), but
without the alcohol, drugs and crime.
Levi worked at a timber mill after school and
started slipping down a pathway to trouble.

kina is a Mori word meaning a call for bold action. It also conveys a spirit of watchful and
active encouragement, helping others to identify pathways through their challenges.
Find out more about social enterprise in NewZealand and other ventures at:
www.akina.org.nz, email info@akina.org.nz or phone 04 384 9676.

I was hanging with the wrong crowd and

getting into drugs. When my first son was
born, it helped me realise I wanted more.

Lee Waerea is an ex-gang member who is

turning around his life

Along with Jackson Waerea and Kia Diamond,

the team started as a limited liability company
but came across other organisations
operating as charitable trusts and accessing
grants to do similar work. Levi found a paper
on social enterprise and tracked down kina.

Photography thanks to Bev Meldrum www.bevmeldrum.com

3

Gang members are joining Patu and are getting

jobs. We want to support young ones so they
can make choices and dont have to follow that
pathway. Gang members want the best for their
kids they cant always show it.
Patu is now developing its own accelerator
programme to help people across Aotearoa start
up their own Patu gym.
We want to scale up more efficiently so were
creating a Patu accelerator and looking New
Zealand-wide. Were aiming to run a mini
Launchpad with eight participants over the next
six to 12 months with us supporting them.
Levi says its a privilege and an honour to
do this work.
Patu is changing lives, including their own.

Josh Whatarau is one of the Patu trainers and is studying for a Degree in Sports and Recreation

kina was running a social enterprise

workshop in Gisborne. We travelled up to see
if we fitted in and loved it. Next we applied
for Launchpad and attended the warm-ups
in Wellington we were sure we were on to
something good.
Now I feel like Im advocating for social
enterprise all the time.
Patu won the Peoples Choice award at the
2015 Launchpad programme, kinas social
enterprise accelerator programme, and now
has gyms in Napier, Hastings and Wairoa,
with a site opening in Kaikohe in June. Patu
is also mobile and visits schools, marae and
workplaces.

people in the door, Patu is more of an urban

marae than a gym and offers budgeting and
nutrition advice as well as other support.

Established in
Operating model

Weve set up a health indicator tool called

the meke meter that helps us get a better
understanding of someones overall mental,
social and physical health. We ask questions
about motivation and self-image as well as
collecting data like blood pressure, weight
and percentage fat, then measure it again
after 12 weeks to identify where theyve
improved.

Number employed
Annual turnover
Website

2012
Limited liability
company
14
$123k (2015) predicted
to double in 2016
www.patunz.com

2015 winners of the Peoples Choice award in

the Launchpad programme

One area that makes a big impact overall is

financial literacy as it connects to being able
to make healthy eating choices, says Levi.

Levi co-authored a report in the New Zealand The team always wanted to create a social
Population Health Congress 2014 proceedings, atmosphere with positive male Mori role
which included quotes from participants. One models. He says some people are doing
things they never though they could joining
quote sums it up: Its just so encouraging,
sports teams, joining the workforce, no longer
you feel comfortable, just like at home. We
dont see each other as just gym members;
committing crimes.
we see each other as whnau.
Seeing the smiles on the faces of your own
Your typical Patu person is an average Joe.
whnau, seeing them achieve their goals,
Some have never been to a gym before or
seeing the camaraderie and sense of
havent exercised in the past 20 years. We
belonging thats the real buzz.
offer motivation and support in a comfy
environmental there is no lycra!
Levi says they are even taking their approach
to gang members, working with leaders in
Levi says while getting fit and active brings
gangs.
4

Patu

1,500 whnau members engaged in Patu in

Hawkes Bay
Average weight loss over 12 weeks is 5-6kg
A Te Puni Kkiri 2014 evaluation report
stated Patu is achieving some outstanding
results in terms of positive life changes for
participants
2016 winners of the Sports Hawkes Bay SBS
Bank Innovation in Sport and Recreation
award.

Ben Tahau enjoys Patu

with his whnau - his
wife and children all
attend

kina Foundation CEO Alex Hannant says Patu started as

a limited liability company with a clear social mission, but
there are different ways for social enterprises to structure
themselves. Russell McVeagh has worked with kina
providing pro bono legal advice to ventures, and to kina
itself, since 2012.

Why social enterprise?

Start out on the right foot get advice early
There is no special legal form for social
enterprises, says Russell McVeagh solicitor Sam
Green and as a result they come in different
shapes and sizes with different legal forms.
Sam says the area is not easy. What you might
expect to be charitable because it addresses
a social problem doesnt always meet the
definition of charitable under the law. That
makes it a good idea to seek advice early.
He says some social enterprises fall outside
the charities law test by providing private
pecuniary benefit this can happen when
owners of the enterprise receive profits or when
only a narrow group of individuals supported by
the enterprise receive the benefits or profits.
Sam says unless a social enterprise is charitable
under the law, it does not receive legal benefits
for the social value it contributes.
kinas Emma Geard adds:
A social enterprise without
charitable status may struggle
to access the limited pool of
social funding. Plus it can
also struggle to get investors
on board because investors
generally only focus on the
commerciality of an enterprise.
With a lack of recognition for
social enterprise, and even
awareness around the approach
of seeking both social and
financial outcomes,
it can be hard
work to grow.

However, a successful social enterprise is a

game changer large-scale solutions come
when financial growth and making a difference
go hand in hand.
Sam says new models designed for social
enterprises have been created in the USA,
Canada, UK and other European countries,
such as community interest companies. He
says the most common legal forms that
social enterprises operate as in New Zealand
are charitable trusts, incorporated societies
or charitable companies, or in the case of
non-charitable social enterprises, they use
conventional business structures such as
companies.
There are no more fishhooks in one legal form
than there are in another what matters is that
the structure suits your needs and that youre
familiar with the legal duties involved.
An incorporated charitable trust board is
structurally similar to a charitable company,
which there are far fewer of, but charitable
companies seem to be becoming more popular.

Social enterprises use commercial models to deliver

on social and environmental goals. They can use
a variety of legal structures including companies,
charitable trusts, joint ventures, and collectives.

Social &
environmental
impact

Commercial
methods +
financially
self-sustaining

The advantage social enterprises present

is that they deliver:
Inclusive economic development: fostering
entrepreneurship, creating jobs, and tackling
disadvantage

The kina Foundation

supports people with ideas
to drive positive social and
environmental change through
social enterprise.
Its vision is for a sustainable,
prosperous and inclusive world.
kina offers workshops, oneon-one support, consultancy
and investment services,
regional and national
partnerships, accelerator
programmes and international
connections, and works with a
wide range of organisations all
around NewZealand.

Innovation: solving persistent social and

environmental problems in new ways, and
Independence: proliferating local solutions
that harness community ideas, resources, and
leadership.

An incorporated society suits enterprises

with a natural membership base, he says, but
warns that incorporated societies can be more
cumbersome to administer.
A business structure without charitable status
has the ability to be more flexible as it is not
limited to the restricted range of activities
permitted by charities law.
The key is choosing something, he says.
Creating an organisation without a structure
can be risky you need to think about limiting
liability for the individuals involved.

Sam Green, www.russellmcveagh.com

6

\Get involved!
Register for an intro workshop, apply for coaching,
sign up for the kina newsletter, get involved as a
mentor or volunteer, or find out how to invest in
social enterprise.
email info@akina.org.nz

phone 04 384 9676

www.akina.org.nz