“Fill our cup to fill theirs” - Ranui 135 invests in staff wellbeing to strengthen youth impact

In the heart of Rānui, where trains roll past and community pulses through the streets, a team of youth workers has long been doing the heavy lifting - guiding, uplifting and backing local rangatahi to believe in better futures.

But at the start of 2025, Ranui 135 flipped the focus inward.

For over 20 years, Ranui 135 has been walking alongside young people, offering hope and opportunity in a suburb that led West Auckland for all the wrong reasons - education dropouts, crime, and youth unemployment. 

Born from the Ranui Action Project’s Youth Focus Group, Ranui 135 became a homegrown response: a collective of passionate locals who engaged youth through events, leadership, and belonging. The movement grew… and so did the need to look after the people behind it.

Before stepping into another year of frontline youth mahi, the team stepped away from the noise for a three-day New Year’s retreat - not to plan more events or write strategies, but to simply reconnect. Reset. Remember who they are.

With a new intake of staff joining the OGs who have been there since the early days, the retreat offered a space for two generations of youth workers to come together, reflect, and reweave their purpose.

“This work is emotional. Vulnerable. We show up every day to pour into our kids,” says Ranui 135 Manager Rob Luisi. “But we realised, if our cup is empty, we’ve got nothing left to give. So we had to fill our own cup first.”

The retreat was held at Ranui 135’s home base, nestled in the heart of the township near the local library and community centre, a grounding place for many, and a quiet reminder of why they started in the first place.

The team shared photos that represented their journey into youth work - a powerful exercise in whanaungatanga. One image at a time, stories surfaced: about heartbreak, hope, resilience, and the personal fires that brought each of them into the world of youth development.

They explored Te Ao Māori and Te Ao Wairua, deepening their understanding of how to spiritually protect themselves in emotionally demanding roles. Using Te Whare Tapa Whā, they named their wellbeing pillars and recognised where support was needed, not just in the physical, but in the mental, spiritual and relational realms.

A core reflection was built around the “Seven Generations” principle, an Indigenous Native American worldview that reminds us that our actions today ripple both backwards and forwards - shaped by the past seven generations, and shaping the next seven.

“We started to see our own stories not as isolated, but as part of something bigger,” says one staff member. “What we heal in ourselves, we shift for our community too.”

The team also laughed their way through a love language exercise, a simple but powerful way to understand how to support one another — not just in tasks, but in care.

And it’s only the beginning. The retreat laid a strong foundation, but the commitment continues: \ more wellbeing-focused PDs are scheduled across 2025, creating space to continually check in, recharge and uplift each other.

“This is a good start,” Rob says. “We’re still on the journey of connection but this gave us our starting point. And that’s what our young people deserve… a connected, healthy team that shows up fully.”

For Ranui 135, the mission remains clear: to help young people grow with confidence and pursue positive life outcomes. But to do that, their youth workers must also feel seen, safe, and supported.

The retreat was made possible through the Olaga Lei initiative, which supports 12 by-Pasefika-for-Pasefika organisations to strengthen community wellbeing. It is proudly backed by the Le Moana West Collective, a network committed to empowering systemic change for Pacific communities across West Auckland.