"I Have a Dream"® Projects motivate and empower children from low-income communities to reach their education and career goals by providing a long-term programme of mentoring, tutoring and enrichment, along with tuition assistance for higher education. We are unique from most other programmes in two key areas:

• Each project selects one entire Year Level from the founding Primary School, not just the talented kids or the troubled kids.
• Each project works with that same group of children from early Primary School right through to Tertiary study, i.e., for 10 to 15 years.

We combat the high school drop-out rate by taking a personal interest in the lives of students and their families, providing educational opportunities, recreational programmes, social support and financial resources that they might otherwise be denied.

Unfortunately, not every child in New Zealand is given the chance to live up to his or her potential.

• In a study of 25 Auckland High Schools, some high decile schools produced almost 80 A or B bursars from 100 students who started Year 9; whilst some low decile schools produced none.

Percentage of students obtaining A or B bursaries per 100
Year 9 entrants
Source: MSE Taskforce, University of Auckland

School Decile

Note: Schools in decile one have the highest proportion of students from low socio-economic backgrounds. Schools in decile ten have the lowest proportions of these students.

New Zealand's youth, our future, deserve every opportunity for the best education possible. We invite you to get involved with us and start making a difference today.

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