This year centred on listening deeply and learning alongside communities in transition.

We held space, experimented, and reflected on what it means to live well together - with water, with difference, and with each other - while navigating change, complexity, and the ever-present hum of AI.

These highlights capture moments that shaped our mahi and pointed us toward what comes next.

Catalyse
2025 Year in Review

Holding space, building connection

Highlights from the year

The diversity of flood recovery: many communities, many paths

This year we’ve had the privilege of supporting community-led flood recovery planning across Tāmaki Makaurau alongside Auckland Council’s Flood Recovery Office.

These projects, rooted in place and shaped by each community’s story, have reminded us just how diverse recovery can be.

We’ve learnt that recovery isn’t a single process - it’s as varied as the people who live it and the places they live in. In Piha, we supported the early stages of neighbours coming together to imagine a future that is both vibrant and resilient. In Pukekohe, we helped guide conversations that centred their awa -

— ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au —

- to explore how people and water can coexist in a way that honours past, present and future. We walked alongside leaders from the Puhoi community who led the Love Puhoi campaign, turning a photo exhibition into a collective act of storytelling, pride and future actions. In Epsom, we lead with creativity to help residents process grief and possibility - with 221 hand-painted leaves created that will form a public kinetic mural symbolising renewal on a highly-visible Category 3 site. In Eden, our work gathered local residents to reimagine a neighbourhood that now has large pockets of Category 3 land.

In all of these different places, recovery planning has been much less about rebuilding what was and more about taking steps to create what could now be. Insights we’re taking forward:

Start small, go deep, do things together - the neighbourhood scale is where hope takes root and where benefits from actions are felt. Collective actions are much more than the sum of their parts.
Make space for lived experience and bring in expertise - memory provides fuel for innovation which often needs expertise to manifest in ways that work for locals - people and place.
Work with imperfect allies - humility builds stronger coalitions than hierarchy and also enables us to co-create conditions for different skills and talents to shine.
Real change happens at human pace - trust first, a bit of a plan not a lot of a plan, and some action. Nothing beats being part of the action.

Storytelling and values:
the future currency is trust

In partnership with ANCAD, Community Waitākere and Auckland Council, we explored the power of storytelling through a new workshop series on values-based communication.

This work is deeply rooted in conversations with those working in and with diverse communities across Tāmaki Makaurau over the past 2 years. Together we mapped audiences, clarified values, and tested storytelling frameworks grounded in globally-recognised values, and Māori and Pasifika worldviews.

In an era of attention scarcity and advocacy fatigue - not to mention significant cuts to available funding - authentic stories cut through noise. Where facts inform, stories connect, and they remind us that while people may debate data, when stories resonate with their values, they rarely argue.

When our stories reflect the values of those we hope to influence - whether funders, policymakers, or neighbours - we connect on an emotional level. So taking time to understand those we want to hear our stories, those we want to influence with our stories is key. Changing minds doesn’t start with being right; it starts with being heard.

Storytelling principles that emerged from this work are:

Lead with empathy, end with empowerment.
Anchor in shared values before asking for change.
Keep stories short, emotional, and human.
Above all, tell the truth - clearly, kindly, and authentically.

The next stage of this mahi will be the launch of a Storytelling for Impact & Influence website in 2026. This site will feature the storytelling resources we designed, tested and shared in 2025, recorded presentations, along with exemplar storytelling from organisations including Changing Minds, Belong Aotearoa, A Fool’s Company and others.

Building community in Victoria Quarter

In the inner city neighbourhood of Victoria Quarter South, we’ve been working out ways to spark belonging in an area that makes it difficult to connect.

The pilot community development programme we’re working on is focused on Cook Street, Hobson Street, and Union Street - an area home to more than 5,000 people from diverse backgrounds, many living in siloes of high-density housing with limited access to spaces beyond their floor or building.

Drawing on local and international experience, our approach is grounded in developing the fabric of everyday life through participation.

Our role is to connect, join in, offer more than ask, help resolve concerns and add value as we put people at the heart of how this neighbourhood works.

In a few months we’ve:

Hosted small gatherings and neighbourly events.
Launched a local community newsletter (The Connector) and Facebook page.
Facilitated a growing network of local champions - residents, community and business leaders who are interested in forming a local association.
Painted a little library and are planning to install it with a local business hosting.
Co-designed a streetscape with locals to include more planting and seats.
Connected other projects and programmes with people in the area, building trust and partnership with Auckland Council and other anchor organisations.

There is much more in the pipeline as we develop the shared appetite for greenery, safety, and spaces that invite community life! We are honoured to be working with such talented and committed locals to make a tangible difference in the life of this neighbourhood as together we work towards a sense of community, connection and shared identity.

To wrap up the year, we’ve designed a set of conversation starters to help connect with people you don’t yet know, or with those who hold different values from you. These are bridge builders and we warmly invite you to remember that common ground is rarely found by accident, but through curiosity and care.

A gift for connection:
kōrero catalysts

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Whakamihi

This year’s work has only been possible through strong collaborations with values-aligned partners and the support of a dynamic, creative core team - Denise, Kate and Tauma. Ngā mihi too to our wider team - Daisy, Dylan, Alex, Coen, and Amber - for the energy, compassion, and dedication you have brought to our projects.

As we head into 2026, our commitment remains the same: to bring people together to imagine and create futures they value - resilient, relational, and full of possibility.

May your summer and festive season bring you much joy and replenishment.
There is much to be thankful for and much to do together!

Aio ki te rangi

Aio ki te whenua

Aio ki ngā tāngata Katoa

Peace to the skies

Peace to the land

Peace to all humankind

Thank you for being with us

with aroha,

Catalyse 2025 Year in Review