What Does Our Organisation Do?

StarJam’s vision is a world where people with disabilities are successfully integrated into our communities and lead fulfilling lives.

Our purpose is three-fold: to assist young New Zealanders with disabilities (our ‘Jammers’) to reach their potential, to enable them to participate fully in their communities through weekly music workshops and performance opportunities and finally, to influence audiences, showing them what people with disabilities can achieve with the right support in place.

What has the Trust House Foundation Grant Funding Enabled Us to Do Now (and in the Future)?

The Trust House Foundation’s grant enabled StarJam to successfully launch a dance workshop and a singing workshop, catering for up to 24 would-be Jammers in the Wairarapa. The funds supported the thorough groundwork needed to recruit the right people, find the right venue (in Masterton) and to spread the word that StarJam was finally coming to the Wairarapa. The project was a year in preparation, building momentum as we realised that young people with disabilities in outlying areas are sorely lacking the recreational outlets available to their city-based counterparts.

For our new Jammers, StarJam has been life-changing. Some are enjoying their first experience of being part of a group that’s tailored to their needs, interests and capabilities, where they can enjoy a fellowship of acceptance and understanding. For others, StarJam is their connection to the community, representing freedom from the isolation of disability through friendship, learning and music.

For the Wairarapa community, StarJam is supporting and nurturing some of its most vulnerable citizens while offering them the opportunity to stand tall by giving back through their unique performance talents.

StarJam thanks the Trust House Foundation, Rehabilitation Trust, Eastern and Central Community Trust and the John Ilott Charitable Trust for supporting our Wairarapa programme.