Taranaki Foundation is proud to welcome the Taranaki Youth Boost Fund. In the past three years, more than $30,000 has been gifted to Taranaki young people to help them reach their dreams thanks to Taranaki Steelformers Youth Boost.

Steelformers Youth Boost was originally founded by Brendon Back and Brent Taylor, after being inundated with individual requests for financial assistance by young people struggling to fund their trips to sports events, needing money to buy new equipment or pay for expert training.

“Youth Boost is a great way for us as a company to give back to the province and support 24 young people each year to follow their dreams, while at the same time taking a little bit of the financial burden away from parents or guardians.” says Brendon.

Every month, an average of 200 entries to the draw flood in from school-age people around Taranaki who need a financial boost to fund their participation or secure additional training in sport, music, artistic or academic pursuits. Two students are drawn out of the entries each month to receive $500 towards these pursuits.

“Steelformers Youth Boost has already helped over 60 young people in Taranaki from a wide range of activities. Through the establishment of this Fund, we are excited that we will be able to scale up the impact of Youth Boost to reach more deserving students across Taranaki.” says Brendon.

Taranaki Foundation CE, Josh Hickford, says Taranaki Foundation are delighted to be working with Taranaki Steelformers and the NP Partners Forum to amplify the profile, visibility and impact of Youth Boost.

“Our aim at Taranaki Foundation is to provide simple but tailored solutions to those that wish to create positive community benefit, now and in the future. It is a privilege to provide this service and continuity for Taranaki Steelformers and to support them helping more of our young people reach their potential into the future.”

Brendon says the “aspirational goal is to double the size of the Fund, opening up Youth Boost to more talented Taranaki young people each month.”

  • Read more about the Taranaki Youth Boost Fund here
  • Watch this Video clip celebrating the new partnership and launch of the Fund here
  • Read the Taranaki Daily News article announcing the partnership here