• children participating and succeeding in learning where they had not been prior

• educators improving the quality and responsiveness of their delivery to students

• whānau engaging in the learning process for their children and themselves

• adults attaining base qualifications and/or enrolling in further learning beyond non-formal

• education and community partners collaborating to provide shared solutions and resources to benefit learners, and therefore communities.

Commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi is core to how REAPs approaches their work. Our Hauhake caucus provides national guidance on input from Māori about Māori in a partnership context of lifelong learning and educational success.

REAPs progress community development through quality lifelong education in rural Aotearoa. We are part of a unique system - no other country in the world provides a system like this to specifically support rural and provincial communities to fill gaps in lifelong learning. This means we understand:

• the links between lifelong education and strong, resilient, progressive communities

• rural communities require tailored provision to enable equitable access to learning

• the strength of taking a community-led development approach that is founded on a human rights framework.

To achieve this, we:

• work hard alongside our communities to identify local knowledge, strengths, needs, and aspirations

• broker responsive, lifelong learning opportunities for individual, whanau, and community benefit

• take a complementary and supplementary, and strength-based approach to community development.

​

REAPs have evidence-based research to show we use a social capital approach to our work – that networks, trust, social context, and brokerage are key to all we do. As lifelong education specialists, this means we improve skills for individuals in a way that shows a real impact on communities.

​