Olivia Pierce joined us as our Youth Development Manager in December last year but she’s no stranger to YMCA and the benefits our organisation provides communities around the country.
Olivia started her career with South & Mid Canterbury YMCA and loved it. Then she moved to Hawke’s Bay and found that “something was missing”, she really missed the sense of belonging she’d had at YMCA. So, she joined our Board but then the youth development position came up and she jumped at the chance to return to the whanau.
Now she’s working hard at building connections with the Hawke’s Bay youth development community. You can read about a Breakaway project with Directions Youth Health Centre here.
Olivia is keen to work with youth in schools and has plans to share a resiliency tool kit with schools – more on this in future issues. She’s also looking to ramp up youth programmes that we’ve run previously, such as our PT sessions – again watch this space!
And she’s loving supporting Kevin Webb, our Outdoor Education Programme Manager, always keen to join the outdoor ed team helping with camping, canoeing, and other adventure activities. “It’s so cool I get to do this for a job,” she enthuses.