Applications for Toloa Community and Kenese Funds open

Education goes a long way to helping Pacific peoples thrive and prosper in Aotearoa.

Studies in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) opens the doors to many different career opportunities and options.  

With this is mind, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) set up the Toloa Programme, which encourages Pacific students to pursue studies in STEM, with the aim of increasing the number of Pacific peoples employed in STEM careers. 

To reach key Pacific audiences simultaneously, the Toloa Programme delivers to three key strands - Toloa Tertiary Scholarships, Toloa Kenese, and Toloa Community Fund.

Toloa Community Fund

Today (July 27), applications for the 2020 Toloa Community Fund and Toloa Kenese Fund open.   

Established in 2015, the Toloa Community Fund has been set up to support organisations/community groups to promote and deliver STEM activities to Pacific young people, through engaging key Pacific influencer groups including parents, families, and community leaders.

Pacific organisations which work with Pacific communities are encouraged to apply for funding to deliver STEM related activities.

There are several funding options available:

• Grassroots Initiatives (grants up to $5,000 per annum): This fund is for groups who have a new idea and it fund provides seed funding for new ideas, in a give-a-go, safe-to-fail structure;
• Emerging Initiatives (grants up to $10-20,000 per annum): This fund is for groups who have already tested ideas and have shown some good results in their own community. Funding requested under this category could be used to improve or scale up an idea; and  
• Collaboration Initiatives (Grants of up to $50,000 per annum): This fund is for groups who have already tested ideas and have shown some good results in their community, and may look to collaborate with other community groups to improve or scale up an idea for the region, or across several regions or nationwide.

The Ministry is looking for initiatives and activities that are creative, innovative, have high impact and will lift STEM aspirations among our Pacific communities.

It wants to see existing small-scale initiatives to scale up their activities to deliver STEM initiatives to a greater number of people, to enable participants to develop a more in-depth and greater understanding of STEM.

Existing initiatives are encouraged to focus on one component of STEM.

Toloa Kenese Fund

The Kenese Fund supports STEM providers to deliver targeted Pacific programmes and workshops with primary, intermediate, and secondary schools, students, and parents to create opportunities for engagement to raise awareness and increase Pacific uptake of STEM subjects.

It supports providers to deliver local, regional, national initiatives over one to two years, with grants of up to $50,000 per annum.

Once again, the Ministry seeks creative and innovative initiatives or activities.

It will also consider the target audience and numbers involved, the reach for communities, involvement of parents, successful initiatives that raise awareness of STEM study and careers and increase the uptake of secondary school students studying STEM subjects across year levels, as well as those which support successful completion of study and/or STEM related projects.

The Ministry aims to see initiatives scaled up to deliver STEM to a greater number of people, to enable participants to develop a more in-depth and greater understanding of STEM.

Applications for both the 2020/2021 Toloa Community Fund and Kenese Fund open today, and close on August 28, at 12pm noon.

All projects and activities including accountability reports are expected to be delivered by no later than June 30, 2021.

Visit MPP for more information.