Over 60 people gathered recently to celebrate the commencement of sustained funding to the Heart for Youth Trust and to recognise the achievements and support of Y for Youth‘s Founding Angels which included Phil Horrobin and Ian Spurle of Ray White City Realty Ltd.
Y for Youth is a ‘social brand’ setup and designed to empower New Zealand’s youth. Passionate about positively influencing the lives of youth to build happy, healthy communities Y for Youth do this by creating sustained funding for organisations and programmes that educate, motivate and mentor our youth.
Phil Horrobin and Ian Spurle of Ray White City Realty were both recognised as Founding Angels on the night. Their support, which included sponsoring the Y for Youth Cocktail Function, has meant a great deal to the organisation says Lara Jane, Co-Founder of Y for Youth in New Zealand. “Without Phil and Ian’s support, we would not have been able to come together and celebrate the success of a huge milestone in Y for Youth’s journey, the commencement of sustained funding to our youth organisations.” The support of businesses and this guaranteed sustained funding means that Y for Youth can focus on expanding their programmes and connecting with as many youth as possible.
“It was a wonderful experience seeing and being with all these special people. Being able to see how generous people are with there time, ideas and funding was an experience. It was very satisfying.” says Phil Horrobin.
One of Y for Youth’s biggest successes since their recent launch in New Zealand has been attracting the attention, and support of high profile celebrities including Temuera Morrison (Ambassador), Laura Dekker who sailed around the world at 15 years of age who has stepped in as a Youth Ambassador, Amanda Billing from Shortland Street and high profile New Zealand musician Tiki Taane – both also a Founding Angels and Ambassadors. Other Founding Angels include Coca-Cola, Navman Wireless, Michael Mayell (founder of Cookie Time) and Kim Dotcom. “Our Founding Angels have been instrumental to our success so far, however by far the biggest, and the most important milestone, was taking the concept of Y for Youth from an initial idea through to actually creating sustained funding for our youth organisations.” says Lara Jane.
Y for Youth is now focused on sharing the youth organisations stories. Letting the public know about their programmes and the positive impact they are having on our community.
“It is fantastic to see our offices putting back into the community especially with our youth – forming habits to be future leaders but first working through some of the social issues they face today. City Realty Ltd have played a major role in fundraising and the cocktail party was a celebration of the success of two years of hard work developing the model that is now at the implementation phase. It’s all systems go in no small part due to Phil Horrobin – Business Owner of City Realty and their ongoing support of Y for Youth. This was recognized when they were announced as Founding Angels at the function.” says Graeme Fraser, Auckland Business Performance Manager for Ray White New Zealand.