“Kirsty was involved with Changing Minds as Tall tree, Mentor and Facilitator on our national mental health and wellbeing programme Rākau Roroa. Diving into our content she ran training programmes up and down the country and was highly engaged as a lead facilitator. She mentored 15 Tall Trees on diverse mental health and wellbeing projects and provided mentoring & peer support to newer Facilitators. We have selected Kirsty as a Facilitator for online training for our digital platform as she has been incredibly professional, reliable, responsive and able to hit the ground running with last minute requests. Kirsty is consistently a culturally respectful, engaging, skilled, experienced Facilitator who keeps to time yet allows for flexibility of conversation within the room. She is a warm, fun, active team member that is passionate about mental health, wellbeing and advocacy. I am privileged to have met her and greatly appreciate her work for Changing Minds.”
Tamara Waugh, National Project Manager – Rākau Roroa – Changing Minds.
“I have known Kirsty for some years in my role as a Trustee of the New Zealand Youth Mentoring Network Trust, and as a Pacific community leader in Auckland. Kirsty was involved in assisting the Trust in its work to renew its National Guidelines on Youth Mentoring and also organised, facilitated and delivered national youth mentoring leadership programmes throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, over many years. Her facilitation skills were always exemplary, thorough and highly valued. All participants came from diverse socio economic, cultural and language backgrounds, especially Maori and Pacific, migrant and refugee communities. Kirsty was always engaging and participant focused, often drawing on their prior knowledge and experiences to strengthen the training and deepen the learning in this challenging area of youth development and support, and for their respective communities. One significant outcome has been a greater national interest in effective youth mentoring. Kirsty’s leadership was the major contributing factor to this. I believe Kirsty has an innate sense of social justice, tempered by practical experiences to make solid impacts on the lives of young people and communities. In brief, Kirsty is passionate, practical, well organised, a remarkably engaging facilitator and leader. She is well qualified to work across many community settings and audiences. I commend her in any role or task she sets her mind to.”
Fuimaono Tuiasau – Trustee, New Zealand Youth Mentoring Network, Auckland Pacific Community Leader.
“Having worked with Kirsty in the not-for-profit sector for a number of years I can honestly say she is one of the most skilled facilitators I have worked with. Often dealing with challenging and demanding groups, she is able to quickly establish rapport and work with them to achieve great results. Kirsty designs well thought-out training programmes, tailored to learners’ needs that are fun and engaging, while underpinned by robust theoretical models of adult learning. She is a delight to deal with, always going the extra mile and her work is of an extremely high quality.”
Marie-Jo Wilson – Student Engagement Manager, University of Auckland
“I have worked with Kirsty over many years in different roles. I was delighted when the ASB Community Trust offered Kirsty to support us in the development of The Cube – a new and innovative model of service delivery for young people with disabilities. As part of The Cube Kirsty has to work with different stakeholder groups, young people, service provider CEO’s and Boards of Trustees. Her facilitation is both skilled and inclusive, she is able to ensure each voice is heard and included in the model development. Kirsty is an excellent capacity support facilitator, easy to work with, professional and very skilled.”
Sonia Thursby – CEO of Yes Disability and The CUBE
“Kirsty’s training style is fantastic – her well developed knowledge of mentoring and adult experiential training models and her extensive experience combine for great training delivery. We receive excellent feedback about Kirsty’s training and facilitation and are thrilled to have her as part of our team.”
Nicki McDonald – General Manager, New Zealand Youth Mentoring Network.
“Kirsty quickly grasped the concept of what we required and understood the urgency to complete the work – something we really valued. Kirsty was able to work with our programme staff to analyse the data and complete a high-level summary that recognized stakeholder satisfaction, achievement of programme objectives and also identified emerging themes and areas of programme improvement. Furthermore, Kirsty was a real pleasure to work with. Her professional manner, knowledge of the NFP and youth sector coupled with attention to detail made a positive impact on our organization and we would definitely contract Kirsty again.”
Kat Doughty – Programme Development Manager, YWCA Auckland
“Kirsty worked with me for 5 years and held a multi-faceted role, which required her to work with very diverse groups – from 18 year old trainees in Kiwi Can leader roles, to training and accrediting professional trainers into our Project K Mentor Trainer roles. In addition, Kirsty helped design and then delivered our Project K Corporate Mentor Training to a number of FYD’s significant corporate partners. She held a leadership role as part of our senior management team, and represented our organisation on several sector development projects and national networks and associations. Kirsty always delivered high quality standards within some significant time constraints. The test for me is to ask, would I employ this person again? The answer is unreservedly ‘Yes’”
Jo-anne Wilkinson MNZM LLB – Co-Founder and Trustee, Foundation for Youth Development, Consultant
“Kirsty was our key project manager and communicated effectively and with rapport with staff, community stakeholders, volunteers and the Ministry of Education. She understood our needs as well as the community needs and Ministry of Education requirements. I highly recommend Kirsty as a consultant who has great understanding of the community sector and she is a great do-er who meets the brief within budget and timeframes to a high standard.”
Rochana Sheward – CEO of McLaren Park and Henderson South (MPHS) Community Initiative
“Kirsty has worked as part of the inaugural team for the ASB Community Trust’s Centre for Social Impact, supporting youth health and development providers with organisational development and evaluation as part of the Trust’s capacity development programme. Kirsty is highly professional and provides a range of expertise including facilitation, research, evaluation and relationship management. I am delighted to have Kirsty as part of our core team working to increase the social impact of the Trust’s grant making.”
Alison Taylor – High Engagement Manager, ASB Community Trust