Project Employ

23/12/2025

A huge Xmas ‘thank you’ to all the organisations and every single individual that has chosen to support Project Employ this year. You are amazing!

Your generosity through grants, donations, buying coffees from Flourish Cafe or attending our Dinner & Auction Fundraiser is very much appreciated by the PE Board, the PE and Flourish Cafe teams, and Trainees/Graduates.

It’s thanks to your belief in PE’s mission that another 14 hardworking and employable neurodiverse young adults have graduated from our training programme this year. They’ll now move onto our Employment Programme and be supported to gain meaningful, paid employment.

Wishing you all a merry Xmas, a happy new year and a relaxing summer break; and we look forward to introducing you to our next cohort of trainees… there’s 11 of them!!

16/12/2025

Have you seen this month's Auckland North Community and Development - ANCAD Community News magazine? Not only does it feature Project Employ and Flourish Cafe, the star of the article is most definitely PE Graduate Kimiyo - she even made it to the front cover!

So grab yourself a cuppa and have a read of Kimiyo's journey, from Rangitoto College to meaningful, paid employment at JW Marriott Auckland (via Project Employ!).

A huge shout out to Auckland North Community and Development (ANCAD) - an amazing charity and resource, with a vision to create resilient, safe and connected communities. They are doing this by providing coaching, specialist short-term consultancy engagements, work shops, community accounting, mentoring and so, so much more. 👏👏

Inside the latest issue of Community VoicesOur Summer edition of Community Voices brings together powerful stories from across Aotearoa that reflect the resilience, creativity, and heart of the community sector. This issue features real-life journeys of impact— from inclusive employment and youth-...

14/12/2025

We asked our trainees, staff and Flourish Cafe customers what Project Employ means to them. These were some of the most common responses:

P priority; positivity; people; passion
R reliability; respect; ready for work; rewarding
O optimistic; opportunity; organized
J jobs; jokes
E Emily’s tasty wraps; experience; education
C creativity; confidence; coffee; cafe customers; changing lives
T trust; training; time

E equal; equality; engagement; empowering
M mindfulness; Megan; motivation; meaningful employment
P positivity; passion; polite; pride
L learning; lots of fun
O opportunities
Y you!; youthful

We'd love to know what Project Employ means to you?

11/12/2025

Are you under the impression that Project Employ staff are great team players, who celebrate each other’s successes? Then you would not have recognised the VERY competitive individuals playing bowls at Belmont Bowling Club on Tuesday!!

Our Xmas party ended with a delicious bbq at a beautiful but top secret North Shore location, with views to die for. A well earned end of year event for an amazing group of people 🎄 🧑‍🎄

09/12/2025

A huge Wednesday thank you to all those that have bought tickets/tables to our 2026 Dinner & Auction Fundraiser 👏👏 It’s going to be such a great night.

There are still tickets still available for those of you not quite so organised, but we’d hate for you to miss out, so don’t delay - get your tickets or tables of 10 today!

Tickets available from www.projectemploy.nz
(for tables of 10, simply pay for 10 tickets)

04/12/2025

PE Graduate/Cafe Assistant/Youth Ambassador Damian Brooks was beyond excited when Stan Walker popped into Flourish Cafe for a coffee today ☕️

04/12/2025

Thank you to all those that bought scones, muffins, drinks, raffle tickets and Flourish Cafe merch from our stall at Air New Zealand Enable Xmas Market today 🎄

It was lovely catching up with all the disability-led social enterprise stall holders aka amazingly talented people who have all decided that unemployment is not an option, so have started their own little businesses 👏👏👏👏👏

A special shout out to our very own PE Graduate/Intern Ash who was selling their A-MA-ZING artwork ().

Congratulations to Emma Harding - winner of our Xmas hamper!

Thanks to the fab Enable Network team for another great Xmas Market, plus Project Employ’s Damian, Juan, Jaden & Hannah for running our stall.

02/12/2025

It’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and this year’s theme is “fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress”.

What a perfect day to celebrate Flourish Cafe (Air New Zealand)’s 2nd birthday 🎉🎉👏👏

Over the past two years our interns have had over 39,000 interactions with Air NZ employees and their visitors. Natural, positive, daily interactions as coffee is ordered at Flourish Cafe and delivered throughout the building.

We have seen the difference that a sense of belonging and inclusivity has had on both interns and customers. Absolutely life-changing!

Thanks to our amazing coffee partner, Altura Cafe, it was our absolute pleasure to offer free birthday coffee to our Air NZ family this morning.

01/12/2025

Happy Giving Tuesday! Today's the day to give back to your community; give a stranger a smile; give your employees an extra long morning tea break.... there are so many easy ways to 'give'.

But what we'd love you to do this Giving Tuesday, is buy a table for our 2026 Dinner & Auction Fundraiser and help give neurodiverse young adults the best possible chance of gaining employment, and living their best lives. Tickets available at www.projectemploy.nz

Plus, if you'd like your business' name promoted before during and after our charity fundraising event, today's the day to become an official sponsor. Details in the tiles, or contact sarah@projectemploy.nz

Thank you, in advance, for choosing to give to Project Employ 🥰

25/11/2025

Did you know that Hilton Auckland, New Zealand has chosen to partner with Project Employ by creating an internship programme specifically for PE graduates? One of our grads, Shani, was then offered permanent employment and is still loving her role in Banqueting over a year later.

Not only is Hilton Auckland a beautiful hotel in a stunning location, the team there are leading the way when it comes to diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging in the workplace 👏

That's why we are very excited and proud to be holding our March 21st 2026, Dinner & Auction Fundraiser at Hilton Auckland.

Get your tickets/table of 10 today www.projectemploy.nz
It's a Saturday night, so you could stay over and make a weekend of it!

24/11/2025

It is great to see tickets to our 2026 Dinner & Auction Fundraiser selling fast. It is going to be such a fun night - delicious food, great company, and exciting auctions!

You'll also get to experience the incredibly talented, local musician Nathan Fry - a passionate musician, who performs at private events, festivals and markets. At our March 21st event, he'll be performing a set of popular current cover songs and originals, playing live guitar and singing.

As a one-man band, Nathan uses a loop board to overlay beats, bass guitar, rhythm guitar, and vocal harmonies. He can provide chilled background tunes as your guests arrive, dine and mingle, or he can get the party going.

He can work with your professional AV system or provide a high-quality portable PA system. For off-the-grid events, he has an electric generator, and he guarantees excellent sound quality and a professional performance.

Nathan can perform one-off songs at special events such as 'walking down the aisle', farewell celebrations of loved ones, or special ceremonies. Let him know what you are after, and he can customise the music to your needs.

You will not regret hiring Nathan for your next event... but why not buy tickets to our fundraiser and check him out first!

Tickets available now from www.projectemploy.nz
Contact Nathan directly at https://www.nathanfrymusic.co.nz/

See you there!

19/11/2025

What's your favourite precious metal? Platinum? Gold? Silver? Bronze?

If your business is looking for a really impactful charity to support in 2026, we would like to invite you to become an official sponsor of our March 21st Dinner & Auction Fundraiser.

Sponsoring our fundraiser will be life-changing - for the neurodiverse young adults in your community; for your business; and for you!

Please contact hannah@projectemploy.nz for more information.

Thank you, in advance - you are amazing!