Kick Back
Make Change

Kick Back Make Change is a youth development and social justice organisation in Tāmaki Makaurau working alongside rangatahi to end youth homelessness. The Front Door is its flagship crisis and early‑intervention hub on Karangahape Road in central Auckland. Kick Back’s storytelling combines lived experience, data, and systems analysis into report format, providing a compelling case for a housing‑led, trauma‑informed response to youth homelessness.

“I felt appreciated, loved and respected when I walked through the doors. I am at a lodge at the moment but pushing for an apartment. Just being loved by the community has helped me... sometimes I feel up and down but I talk to someone where I can. Much love to the community and respect.”

Impact

Over 200 tamariki and rangatahi are supported through The Front Door, many facing high and complex needs.

The organisation has been able to rapidly house rangatahi who were rough sleeping. Notably it was able to move a 16‑year‑old from sleeping outside a library into safe accommodation within hours.

The Safety Net initiative, which connects homeless rangatahi with trusted host families, has hosted 24 rangatahi, provided 186 safe nights. 90% of rangatahi moved into safe and stable accommodation after leaving The Safety Net.

Rangatahi themselves report reduced drug use, disengagement from crime, improved hauora, reconnection with whānau, and feeling seen, heard and loved.

Influence

Kick Back Make Change embraces Kotahitanga, acknowledging that ending youth homelessness is a collective mahi. It has fostered strong, collaborative relationships to create a comprehensive, cross-sector network that spans central government and funding partners, local government and community services, and integrated youth and specialised support.

The two reports are being used to influence government conversations and, crucially, rangatahi are now visible in public debates through hikoi, panels, media, and advocacy training. This creates a strong shift in the narrative about who holds expertise on homelessness.

Organisation

Kick Back Make Change exists to end youth homelessness by embodying Te Ara o Te Aroha – “Love is the Way” – through education, advocacy, and innovation in youth‑led housing responses. The organisation was established in 2023 in response to the urgent and growing issue of youth homelessness in central Auckland.

Kick Back aims to change the public and political understanding of youth homelessness, transforming it from the inevitable result of individual failure to something that is systemic and solvable.

Purpose

Context and challenges

Homelessness is a serious issue in Tāmaki Makaurau with the number of rough sleepers more than doubling between 2024 and 2025. Data shows that under‑25s make up a very large share of those in severe housing deprivation, and Māori rangatahi are disproportionately affected. A number of policy and system changes, including rising rents, stalled public housing, and tighter access to Emergency Housing, have made it harder for young people to get shelter. This has resulted in an increase in the number of rangatahi sleeping rough and leaves them vulnerable to unsafe situations. Alongside this, youth-focused systems and services are experienced by rangatahi as confusing, humiliating, paper‑heavy, and not designed around youth needs. Many of the young people Kick Back works with speak about feeling the need to “sell their story” to receive support.

What makes it stand out

Kick Back demonstrates what’s possible when a community refuses to accept youth homelessness as normal, and backs this stance with love, structure and evidence. Its mahi is built on a foundation of strong values including Mana, Manaakitanga, Whanaungatanga, Justice, Kohahitanga and Unconditional Aroha - rejecting the idea that any young person is “too at-risk to love”. The organisation has produced two powerful reports, The State of the Street and Emergency Housing report: Insights from young people with lived experience of homelessness, which centre the stories of homeless rangatahi and support these with professional analysis and data.

Alongside this, Kick Back has produced an actionable blueprint for change that outlines specific legislative, funding and service design shifts, and is grounded in evidence from real pilots already operating in Auckland.

Co-design

The Front Door was designed by its users, and reflects what safety, belonging and support looks like for rangatahi experiencing homelessness. Kick Back intentionally invited rangatahi aged 18–21 with lived experience of homelessness and emergency housing to join a co‑design rōpū. Rangatahi were provided with koha, kai and transport, and the opportunity to create a safe space built on shared values. The rōpū facilitator invited rangatahi to shape the structure, pace and content of the sessions, and allowed them to lead the direction of the kōrero.

Why
it works

Kick Back Make Change puts rangatahi lived experience at the centre of its reports, with professional analysis and data supporting this core of authentic stories and quotes. The two reports combine sharp structural critique (policy, data, contracts, legislation) with raw and authentic stories of rangatahi experiences. This type of storytelling speaks to the values of its audience, and inspires empathy and a sense of urgency for change. While the reports show the damage done when rangatahi fall through the cracks in the system, they also present a solution. Outlining specific legislative, funding and service design shifts provides audiences with hope for achievable action and change. This values-led approach has resulted in a safe, inclusive environment that allows for deeply trusted relationships to be formed and honest storytelling.

“It is crazy we have to show people evidence of our suffering for them to believe us, and even that isn’t enough for decision makers to do something...”

“Kick Back is somewhere you can ask for help and feel comfortable with surroundings. Lots of people don’t have this. This place can help with housing, benefit or wider social support.”

Put people with lived experience in the design seat from day one – co‑design the process, not just the outputs.
Tell the whole system story: map the pathways, show where people get bounced around, and connect those patterns to concrete policy and funding settings.
Invest in one anchor space that feels like whānau – the storytelling is much stronger when it emerges from an ongoing, trusted community, not one‑off engagements.

Pair quotes and numbers – every statistic is more powerful when matched with a face and voice, and every story gains weight when backed with data trends.
End with specific, realistic calls to action tailored to your audiences (e.g. “what government can do”, “what local boards can do”, “what neighbours and whānau can do”).

Advice for other storytellers

“Kick Back helped me get my own apartment, I feel like a weight has lifted off my shoulders. I now feel like I have freedom to make my own choices... and I am able to sleep better without being afraid of getting attacked in the middle of the night. Kick Back listened to me and my needs.”

Kick Back Make Change