25 years on 6 months funding
Tim Tipene has been changing the lives of thousands of
NZ children and their families for 25 years and he's done it
without funding.
In 1994 at the age of 22, Tim was
unemployed and had no fixed abode. Without any formal
qualifications or funding, Tim started the Warrior Kids
program to help kids in his community, teaching them self
control and social skills. Over time Tim became a trained
counselor with a graduate certificate in Child and
Adolescent Mental Health and has now been providing Warrior
Kids to communities and schools for 25 years, taking
referrals from community and government agencies, and
changing the lives of thousands.
In all that time
Warrior Kids only ever received 6 months of
funding.
'There were a lot of promises from funders over
the years, but in the end they were saying things like, why
should we fund you when you've already been operating
without funding?' Tim says. 'Sometimes funders would visit
me, encourage me to apply for their funding and then turn me
down. It turned out that they were just needing so many
services to apply for funding to justify their
existence.'
Tim says that even the funding that he
received was minimal. 'It was only to fund 2 or 3 classes
per week for a couple of terms. It never covered the full
operation. I wasn't going to let a lack of funds stop me
though.'
Tim started Warrior Kids in Helensville,
north of Auckland. Wanting to break the cycle of abuse and
violence that he had grown up with, Tim changed the martial
arts class that he was teaching into a program to assist
children and families who were facing the same issues.
To begin with Tim used his unemployment benefit to pay
for it. When he got work he used his wages.
'I looked
for any way to keep the running costs of the program low.
Having been abused as a child I was out to save the world so
I didn't care about being paid for what I was doing. For
families that could afford it I charged $4 per session.
Those that couldn't afford it got to do it for free.'
As
time went on and the effectiveness of Warrior Kids became
more well known Schools contracted Tim to come in and run
his program with their children.
'I used the money that
I got from my school contracts to fund my community based
classes.'
After all the let downs and broken promises Tim
turned his back on seeking funding a long time ago.
'Seeking funding is a full time job. That would have
taken me away from working face to face with the children
and their families, which is where my passion has always
been. I've never made any money from Warrior Kids, but money
has never been my reason for doing it.
It hasn't been
easy, it was always a struggle, especially when I was on my
own with my two kids. I was embarrassed after so many years
with nothing to show for myself. There were plenty of times
that I was going to give up.'
Sometimes the struggle got
so hard that Tim had to turn to Work and Income for
help.
'I never liked having to go to WINZ,' he says.
'WINZ were telling me to stop Warrior Kids. They wanted me
to go stack shelves in a supermarket. I've given so much to
NZ, more than I've ever been given.'
Demand for Tim and
his program from throughout the country has never stopped.
Tim says that there has always been a shortage of people
willing to work with kids on the front line.
'It's one
thing to talk about the issues and to throw money at
problems, but what we really need is more adults committed
to working with children and their families on a personal
level. That's the only way to create change. These things
are not covered in schools.'
Today Tim, who is also
an award winning author and inspirational speaker, is
running Warrior Kids and teen classes behind his home in
Ranui, West Auckland, in a large garage that over time he
has converted into a studio.
'It's nothing flash but it
does the trick. People have suggested that I turn the studio
into accommodation and rent it out for income. However what
has been important to me is to keep Warrior Kids going. The
program is now 25 years old. That's an achievement.
I'm
glad that I didn't give up. I feel blessed that I've been
able to make a
difference.'