South Wairarapa Rebus Club

Those attending our last meeting heard a fascinating address from Wayne Poutoa, Director of the Youth Village in Carterton, an organisation that provides accommodation, community and work for young men and women in need, aged 15 to 24.

Wayne is a former gang member who has done time behind bars. A kind guide helped him to see the need for change in his life and he started working within the Baptist church with disadvantaged youth in Porirua. It was during this period that President Kay Paget worked with him, setting up a number of accessible community and computer centres for underprivileged young people in the area.  

In 2016 he came to Carterton as a pastor in the Baptist church and saw the potential of the land owned by the church there for a continuation of his youth work. He and his wife Jennifer set up a youth community drop-in centre in an existing building on the site. Then they found sponsorship and raised funds for six small cottages on the property to provide somewhere for some young folk at risk to call home, a very topical and pressing community need, working with kids who could easily get into criminal activities and join gangs. 

The six small cabins are fully furnished. Three cabins, at $15,000 each, were donated and three were built with money raised in the community. Most supplies for the fit-out were donated by Carterton and Masterton businesses and supporters. The cabins were finished in February 2020, just before the first Covid lockdown. The village has communal kitchen, laundry, bathrooms.

After a year’s operation Wayne and Jennifer found the stress of being church leaders and the demands of their roles in the youth community too much so they moved full time into running the Village.

Young people are recommended to the Village because they are suicidal or from troubled childhoods and need help to survive as young adults. It gives them a space within which to develop and for Wayne to foster contact with youth coaches to help them formulate a life plan. Now, after 2½ years of operational experience, places in the Village are very much in demand but Wayne is convinced that the optimum ages for influencing a reduction in youth offending are between 9 and 13 years. “Get to them early,” he said. 

This was a very timely topic brought to us by a man who is deeply immersed in and familiar with this needy community.

The South Wairarapa Rebus Club <https://southwairaraparebus.com> meets in the South Wairarapa Working Men’s Club on the fourth Friday morning of each month and organises an outing in those months with a fifth Friday. Anyone in the retired age group who may be interested in SW Rebus Club is welcome to come along to a meeting as a visitor.  Please contact David Woodhams, Past President, 027 673 1027.