THEN AND NOW: HOW A BOLD IDEA GREW INTO A NATIONAL MOVEMENT
How it began:
When VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai opened its doors in 2017, it had one employee and a simple premise: that children and young people in New Zealand’s care system deserved an organisation built entirely around them and shaped by them.
VOYCE emerged when Aotearoa was re‑examining how it cared for its most vulnerable young people. An Expert Panel had found that too many children in care felt unheard and powerless in a system meant to protect them, and called for an independent service where their voices would be listened to and acted on. VOYCE was created as part of that shift. Tracie Shipton, now CEO, and Nicolette Dixon, now Chief Social Worker at Oranga Tamariki, travelled the country, meeting with over 180 children in care and asking: “If there were an organisation created just for you, what would it do?” Young people drew pictures, built models, and described in their own words what they needed. VOYCE was built from those answers. The name says it all: VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai stands for Voices of the Young and Care Experienced.
The funding model that emerged paired base government funding - covering the core costs of the advocacy service - with philanthropic investment earmarked for leadership development, systems advocacy, and the experiences that change the course of a young person’s life. The founding philanthropic partners - Tindall Foundation, Todd Foundation, Foundation North, and Te Rourou (then the Vodafone Foundation) - are all still supporting the organisation today, eight years on.
Then: 1 staff member, operating only in Auckland and Northland.
Now: 8 offices nationwide, 50 staff, 2,492 advocacy cases in a single year.
Reach across Aotearoa:
One of the most striking aspects of VOYCE’s growth is its geographical reach.
Where the organisation once operated only in Auckland and Northland, it now runs connection events and advocacy services across every region of New Zealand. In the 2024-25 year alone, VOYCE held 103 connection events: 36 in the South Island, 24 in Northland and Auckland, 22 in the lower North Island, and 21 in the central North Island.
This means care-experienced young people in communities that have never had a VOYCE presence are now being reached. Young people on the East Coast had their first-ever VOYCE event, a day learning reef ecology alongside wild stingrays. Young people in Christchurch learned to surf for the first time. Young people in Wellington who live with their grandparents met others in the same situation, some for the very first time. VOYCE now has operating offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Kaikohe, Whangarei, Tauranga, Hawke’s Bay, Whanganui, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin.
Impact: What Has Changed for Young People
VOYCE opened 2,492 new advocacy cases in 2024-25, supporting young people with everything from having their voice heard in formal court proceedings to accessing healthcare to navigating unstable living arrangements. In 70.5% of cases, the goal was achieved or the problem solved.
Surveys completed by the young people themselves tell an even more impactful story.
On every measure - feeling connected to people they can trust, having a say in decisions made about them, feeling seen and heard by adults in their lives - young people rate VOYCE at 8 out of 10. Their overall satisfaction with the support they receive scores 9 out of 10.
Behind those numbers are individual stories. A child with complex needs, previously told mainstream schooling was impossible, now attends school three days a week. Two young people in care, selected to represent New Zealand in an international basketball tournament, nearly couldn’t go until their support person advocated through the system to secure the necessary documentation. They went, they competed and described it as the best thing that had ever happened to them.
An independent analysis by Matatihi in 2026 also identified wider social and economic benefits associated with this work over time (including reduced reliance on income support, more sustained engagement in education, and fewer interactions with crisis services), reflecting improved outcomes for the young people it supports.
This year VOYCE also published Kei te rongo koe? Are you listening? - a landmark state of care report analysing every significant report written on the care system between 2020 and 2025, drawing out what young people themselves said they were experiencing. Voyce presented the report to the CEO of Oranga Tamariki and the heads of Education, Justice, Police, and Health, with a core group of young people involved every step of the way.
Funder Collaboration: United by a Shared Kaupapa
The Todd Foundation values being part of a group of funders who share a belief in the power of care-experienced young people to bring about change. John McCarthy, Manager of Tindall Foundation says:
“The Tindall Foundation is a proud supporter of VOYCE Whakarongo Mai - as it has been since it started. What makes VOYCE Whakarongo Mai unique is the incredible courage and commitment of the many care experienced young people involved in its work who are prepared to use their voices and act to make change. It’s very moving to see how deeply they care. We have a long way to go to sort out the issues related to the care of children and young people in Aotearoa. VOYCE Whakarongo Mai’s work is an essential part of making sure we get that right.”
For VOYCE, the value of sustained philanthropic investment goes beyond the financial. As Gabriella Guy puts it, so often young people in care “grow up not knowing anyone else whose life has had a similar trajectory to theirs”, and it is the freedom that comes from long-term funder trust that allows VOYCE to keep creating the spaces where that changes.
Todd Foundation: Partnership in Action
In 2025, The Todd Foundation’s relationship with VOYCE took several meaningful forms. Since 2017, the Todd Foundation has contributed funding to support VOYCE’s work, and last year renewed our funding commitment for a further three years. This multi-year support aims to allow VOYCE to think beyond the immediate and invest in long-term change.
At Christmas, the Todd Corporation invited its employees to donate to VOYCE, channelling support directly towards care-experienced young people during a time of year that can be particularly isolating for those in the care system.
And in March 2026, additional funding from the Todd Foundation supported care-experienced young people from across New Zealand to attend VOYCE’s first-ever national conference, Kokiri: The Future Speaks. Held over two days in Wellington, the conference brought together approximately 100 care-experienced young people, caregivers, frontline workers, and senior policymakers to reimagine what care could look like, built on VOYCE’s Six Promises for children in care.
Eight years in, VOYCE has grown from a single employee with a bold idea into a national organisation that opened nearly 2,500 advocacy cases last year alone. As Gabriella Guy reflects: “We’ve got a really amazing group of staff here that really live and breathe the mission.”
