Tracks is expanding from its initial home in Golden Bay and three additional regional communities are now part of the organisation.

An exciting aspect of Track’s evolution and success is the enthusiasm and inspiration the programmes engender in fathers and facilitators. Through these men several regional committees have emerged and there are plans to develop and train these new communities to deliver their own local programmes of events. With these changes, Tracks has moved from a Golden Bay-centred organisation to a Central Office Team with four separate regional Tracks communities: Nelson/Tasman, Canterbury, Wellington and Coromandel/Northern in an effort to give more New Zealand boys the opportunity to attend a Tracks event near them.

Regional development is one of the most challenging and exciting features of the organisation and is a vital aspect of the community-led component of our mission statement.

Nelson/Tasman

The Nelson Tasman Community is still in many ways the ‘home’ community for Tracks. Backed by the Abel Tasman National Park, the spectacular Wainui site was the birthplace of the Tracks Trusts and its programmes. Naturally, it is the most developed and evolved of our venues and is also home to Tides, our sister organisation, which provides rites of passage experiences for girls and young women. As well as hosting ROPE and GMMT programmes, this is where all of our facilitators and young leaders come to train and is the model upon which future developments in other regions will be based.

The Nelson Tasman Community is evolving from the Tracks home base to a regional provider for families living in the top of the South Island. In the future the community will be freed up to offer a broader selection of community activities in the form of returning young men’s programmes, introductory events for younger boys and their fathers, community service initiatives to name a few..

In the eight years Tracks has been operating, a broad and varied community of boys, young men and veterans has grown and flourished. Some of the first youngsters are now in their twenties and thriving. Graduates often return to attend further courses and even to become facilitators in their turn. A unique feature of the Nelson Tasman centre is that it’s the only region where Tides’ girls and young women’s programmes run, and the partnership and support between Tides and Tracks is growing stronger all the time.

Coromandel/Northern activity

In May 2009 Mana Retreat Centre hosted a Good Men Make Tracks (GMMT) event, the first Tracks event in the North Island, and it was a great success. The Coromandel’s rugged, natural landscape combined with its proximity to the three largest cities in the Tracks Thames Northern region makes it the perfect location for us to hold our events. This and the success of the GMMT in May 2009 led Tracks to secure a riverside site in Kauaeranga Valley, 15 minutes from Thames that is being developed to hold more events.

A core group of men in the Thames Northern area has been formed to facilitate future Tracks events, with Eric Zwaan appointed as the Regional Co-ordinator. They have all previously attended Tracks programmes and participated in the ROPE National Council held at Tracks’ Wainui site in Nelson’s Golden Bay.

Currently the focus is on building a community to support the men and boys during and after ROPE events. : April 2009 was a milestone for the Thames Northern branch, when it hosted its first GMMT event, and since January we have held monthly men’s gatherings.

Future plans are to hold Family Days at the centre, where everyone can come together to enjoy and celebrate a sense of community. Excitingly, there is also a group of local women exploring holding ROPE programmes for girls.