Meaningful Mahi: Inspiring a new generation of support workers

Kiwis living with disabilities are sharing their stories to inspire more young people to consider disability support work.

Continuing on from their previous collaborations, Creative agency Curative and national workforce centre for disability, Te Pou, have refreshed the Meaningful Mahi campaign for 2024 to help address the fact the disability support workforce is ageing, and doesn’t reflect the diversity of the communities it serves.

Featuring authentic stories from a diverse group of disabled people and their support workers and whānau, the campaign highlights that disability support work can be fun, flexible, rewarding, and truly meaningful. 

Meaningful Mahi tells new stories about disabled people and what supporting them really looks like – from baking together, helping someone with marketing for their small business, or just having a good dance around the living room.

“Ever since the first Meaningful Mahi campaign we worked on with Curative in 2021, it’s really brought new energy to the way we talk to the public about disability support work,” says Manase Lua, Senior Manager at Te Pou.

“In the new 2024 campaign, we love how Curative helped us break down some of the misconceptions around support work so that potential support workers can see how rewarding this work can be for a range of workers of all ages.”

This year the campaign extends to include not only support workers but members of the whānau. It utilises the same aesthetic to help interrupt possible expectations about doing this kind of mahi. 

“We had such fun shooting with our support workers and whānau,” says Kate Prior, Director and Storyteller at Curative.

“We really wanted to show an even wider range of experiences in our campaign this year and it’s always a joy to hear what our pairs and groups do together to achieve the things that matter. It’s rewarding being able to elevate everyone’s uniqueness with colour, humour and an uplifting tone.”

As well as featuring an entirely fresh group of talent in the new campaign, this year Curative and Te Pou have made it even easier for potential support workers to be directly linked to jobs that make a difference at the Meaningful Mahi website.

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