Our Approach 
Tō Mātou Huarahi

While we identified other impacted groups – and there are naturally intersecting needs, such as older people with mental health difficulties or who are neurodiverse, members of the rainbow communities, and those who are unconnected from family and society or who are otherwise marginalised – our initial focus is where the need has been clearly evidenced as most profound.

Our flagship programmes are:

• partnering in Iwi-led initiatives to provide dementia mate wareware services
• exploring the potential for a Māori and Pasifika Entrepreneur programme that advances culture-centred innovations in health and social care
• our continued leadership of cross-sectoral advocacy through the Aotearoa New Zealand National Forum for the Decade of Healthy Ageing
• further implementation of the Selwyn Support Three Tikanga model.

We are also working on: an Age in Place pilot; a Living Well, Dying Well pilot extending our missional work with the Anglican Church; undertaking our first major impact investment, potentially around housing;  expanding our chaplaincy services to strengthen spiritual care both inwards (across Selwyn Village and those villages formerly owned by the Foundation) and outwards (in the wider community).

With measurable objectives, we aim to have improved material and spiritual wellbeing for 10,000 older people over the five-year period, and to have delivered $40 million in charitable distributions – with $5 million in co-investment.

We will also look to successfully implement the Selwyn Support programme, and to have achieved a 10 percent improvement in community capacity to the benefit of vulnerable seniors generally.

In addition, we will seek to mobilise $20 million in impact investment and to achieve a 3:1 Social Return on Investment, while ensuring that older people’s wellbeing is prioritised in government policy and funding decisions.

In activating our strategy, we are therefore focused on actions that clearly align with our Vision and Purpose, that offer potential for impact at scale, are sustainable and which promote meaningful collaboration with others. In this, our mahi will be underpinned by our Paparahi/Foundations – The Selwyn Way and our commitments to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Spirituality/Faith in the Anglican tradition – ensuring that every aspect of our work reflects the Foundation’s unique ethos and mission which have endured over the last seven decades and will continue to make a difference in older people’s lives for many years to come.