Kōhine = girl, female adolescent
Māia = brave, bold, capable & confident
Kōhine māia is about promoting kōhine between 12 & 18 to be physically active
in whatever form it may take - both within a school environment and outside of it.
The background of our project
Girls out for a paddle with Moana SUP
The idea behind the project
Research shows that physical activity can be a powerful way to support girls on their voyage to being happy, healthy and self-assured.
Sport Tasman was recently announced as 1 of 9 successful organisations nationwide to receive a Sport NZ Women and Girls Activation Fund grant. This fund was designed to support getting more women and girls (12 – 18 yrs) physically active and develop leadership opportunities through play, active recreation and sport.
Sport Tasman will received funding over 3 years to roll the our Kōhine māia project across Te Tau Ihu (the top of the South Island). Our project is an expansion of a pilot project we ran with Nelson College for Girls in Term 4, 2018. We took into consideration all of the participants feedback to shape our project and will continue to ensure we listen and design Kōhine māia with the young women in our region.
Sport Tasman Muddy Buddy
The project promise
The Kōhine māia project will;
EMPOWER the girls via well-being, being socially connected, enjoying new experiences, gaining a sense of achievement and working with their peers, all while promoting leadership and collaboration and growing confidence.
We will CO-DESIGN WITH the Kōhine / girls in our region meaning that each group that we work with, will flavour our project in their own way to suit and meet their needs.
We will WORK WITH girls who may sit inside or outside of the school environment.
This includes new migrants/New Zealanders, teen mums, youth groups, Youth Councils, schools, alternative education and CAMHS DHB.
“Kōhine māia aims to reach out to and listen to girls in a way where they feel heard and empowered to design and engage with experiences that they can connect with and enjoy in their own way.”
Our 8 Principles
to Encourage Success
As we will be working with multiple groups of girls we are aware that a one size fits all model will not work with all groups. When we co-design Kōhine māia to suit the groups needs we will ensure that our intentions of Kōhine māia stay consistent.
Our intentions are to ensure that each Kōhine māia group will support our 8 Principles to Encourage Success:
No judgement
Evoke excitement and curiosity
Clear emotional reward
Open their eyes to what's out there or create F.O.M.O. (fear of missing out)
Create opportunities for new experiences
Building onto existing habits
Realise new and existing skills
Give the girls a voice and choice/co-design
Explore the benefits to them, and;
Create relatable role models and leaders.