Te Ara Poutama

Waikato Wellbeing Knowledge Initiative in partnership with Trust Waikato

Te Ara Poutama is the Waikato Wellbeing Project’s flagship knowledge initiative, developed in partnership with Trust Waikato. It serves as a collective framework for understanding, measuring, and enhancing wellbeing across the region. Rooted in te ao Māori and grounded in community values, Te Ara Poutama provides a shared pathway to navigate complex wellbeing challenges and opportunities. This initiative brings together data, lived experience, local insights, and global evidence to inform decision-making and drive positive, place-based change. It supports our commitment to equity, sustainability, and intergenerational wellbeing, ensuring that people and planet thrive, now and into the future.

To view our Te Ara Poutama - Waikato Wellbeing Initiatives please click on the buttons below

Global Wellbeing

Aotearoa / NZ Wellbeing

Waikato Regional Wellbeing

Waikato SDGS

Regional Wellbeing by District

Regional Wellbeing by Locality

Our Goal

Waikato people, at all levels, are empowered to make important choices wisely for their present and future wellbeing

Te Ara Poutama

Enables people/groups/communities to develop and apply their own definitions of wellbeing.
Builds and shares understandings and insights into wellbeing and how to maintain/improve it.
Supports both quantitative and qualitative knowledge, recognising that insights are not always supported by quantitative data.

Responsive and Respectful of Knowledge Sovereignty and Governance

All knowledge has mana and sovereignty. Knowledge will only be shared with permission of the owner(s).
Māori data knowledge and sovereignty will be upheld.

A Digital Library

A navigator and connector- aggregating knowledge and providing insight.
An accessible portal to wellbeing knowledge and insights for more organisations and communities.
A platform for addressing gaps and collecting new bottom-up data.
A provider of regional, community, and topic specific insights and reports.
A network facilitator - connecting researchers and improving access to tools and resources.
A thought leader – sharing insights on key regional and local wellbeing issues/opportunities.

Knowledge Links

Wellbeing knowledge throughout Waikato districts , New Zealand and Global

How this page works:

This page shares wellbeing knowledge at several different scales and perspectives. The scales include:

Global
Aotearoa | New Zealand
Waikato Region
Waikato Districts
Waikato Localities

At each scale, we share information through the perspectives of :
(a) wellbeing frameworks
(b) data and knowledge; and
(c) progress reports.

With wellbeing frameworks, we have shared links to a number of different frameworks which are available. In all cases, frameworks are shown at the largest scale they are applicable to, and they can be applied at all scales smaller than this. For example the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a globally developed framework which can be applied at any scale. The New Zealand Living Standards Framework was developed at the all of New Zealand level and has relevance in New Zealand to the small scale local, but does not directly apply at the global level. Users should check each framework for any advice on application.