For the second year running, TSB is proudly supporting New Zealand through the TSB Good Stuff annual grants programme of $250,000.

The hunt to unearth innovative ideas that solve problems and help New Zealand communities thrive started in May and since then applications have flooded in.

Following a robust judging process, nine recipients have been awarded grants from the annual $250,000 kickstarter fund, including an innovative water conservation device, a community parenting hub and a clever kiwi tracking conservation drone.

TSB CEO Donna Cooper says for the second year in a row hundreds of amazing ideas were submitted and the team were impressed by the creativity and community spirit shown by the entrants.

'As a New Zealand bank, we're proud to use our profit for purpose to support people right across the country. It's fantastic to back these nine innovative ideas which will solve problems and help our communities,” says Donna.

Wellingtonian Pera Barrett was voted this year's TSB Good Stuff People's Choice winner.

Pera's initiative will use the $30,000 TSB Good Stuff grant to expand the reach of his charity Shoebox Christmas while also up-skilling, enabling development opportunities and better futures for Porirua rangatahi, through a coaching and mentoring programme. Shoebox Christmas is an initiative which connects members of the community with low decile tamariki to provide presents, bringing over 15,000 smiles to tamariki last year.

The other TSB Good Stuff winners for 2021 will use their grants to support auditory assessment and testing for primary school children in Counties Manukau, internships to build transferrable skills for mothers with limited work experience or education, a programme to improve financial literacy for Māori whānau in Christchurch and upskilling former refugees with baker qualifications to support employment.

'TSB is incredibly proud to help these New Zealanders bring their ideas to life. We can't wait to see the positive change in our communities from these inspiring projects,” says Donna.

2021 TSB Good Stuff grants winners and their ideas:

Pera Barrett - Shoebox Christmas rangatahi training programme (Porirua)

Pera Barrett's charity Shoebox Christmas connects members of the community with low decile tamariki to provide shoebox-sized Christmas presents, bringing over 15,000 smiles to tamariki last year

The $30,000 TSB Good Stuff grant will enable Shoebox Christmas to grow its reach and help more children, while also up-skilling, enabling development opportunities and better futures for Porirua rangatahi

It will do this through supporting the organisation to set up a comprehensive coaching and mentoring programme and to develop its website further, creating a platform for rangatahi to use their new skillsets to manage Shoebox Christmas projects

Joanna Wallace – Listen LaunchPad (Counties Manukau)

The Listen LaunchPad is a pilot program focused on improving access to hearing services and resources for children with suspected listening difficulties in the Counties Manukau region.

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a condition that affects how the brain processes sound and has been reported to be over-represented in Pacific Island children living in New Zealand. APD makes learning in challenging situations, such as a busy classroom more difficult. This condition is treatable, and funding is available, but public service to get a diagnosis is not provided in this region.

A $30,000 TSB Good Stuff grant will help get this project off the ground and help children who are most in need access appropriate support for their challenging listening difficulties.

Maya Chand - Bare Necessities Paid Internship Programme (Auckland)

Maya Chand runs Bare Necessities, a charity which works with community organisations to provide expectant and new mothers in need with starter parenting packs, maternity and nursing clothing and much more

The charity will use its $20,000 TSB Good Stuff grant to grow the reach of its impact by funding paid internships with Bare Necessities for mothers wishing to enter the workforce after having children, who may not have had any formal work experience or education in the past

The internships with Bare Necessities will focus on building transferrable skills for participants that will help them transition to the workforce and find employment

Tyrone Bayman - H2O Autosave (Tauranga)

Tyrone has created a water conservation device for residential homes to lower water wastage

H2O Autosave automatically senses when tap water flow is not at the desired temperature - for example when waiting for your shower to heat up - and diverts it to a tank for reuse in your garden, clean car or top up a swimming pool. Kiwis use 175 litres of water per day on average, so this device could save up to 35 litres per day or 8,000 litres per lifetime.

The $30,000 TSB Good Stuff grant will enable Tyrone to fund the manufacture of the H2O Autosave device and get it into market to help support water conservation and have a positive impact on our environment.

Ana Djokovic - The Bread Collective (Auckland)

Ana Djokovic has started The Bread Collective, an initiative which will support the refugee community in Aotearoa by helping to remove the barriers to employment through a tailored programme of learning, focused on the art of commercial baking.

A $20,000 TSB Good Stuff grant will enable this social enterprise to run the programme with a group of former refugees who have been resettled in New Zealand, in collaboration with the AUT School of Hospitality & Tourism.

Launching in January 2022, this programme will not only teach commercial baking, but will provide participants with English language support, enable the rebuilding of professional networks, support mental health through professional partnerships, and secure employment opportunities.

Anton Matthews - Financial Freedom for Whānau (Christchurch)

Financial Freedom for Whānau is a financial literacy programme supporting Māori to improve their personal financial situation, take control of their money and ultimately achieve financial freedom

A $30,000 TSB Good Stuff grant will fund the development of group mentoring sessions to be run with ten whānau at a time by the Angitu Charitable Trust, which was set up by Anton Matthews to create opportunities for Māori to experience success, normalise te reo Māori in our communities and improve employment opportunities for rangatahi

The Financial Freedom for Whānau programme will provide education on key financial literacy topics such as managing and avoiding debt, saving and budgeting, with practical tips and steps to take and use

Taranaki Kiwi Trust - Haurapa Kiwi Project (Taranaki)

The Taranaki Kiwi Trust is developing technology which will help it better track and monitor young kiwi released into the wild and enable it to reinvest significant volunteer hours and costs as a result

It'll use a $30,000 TSB Good Stuff grant to help develop receiving equipment and a drone to locate transmitted kiwi and confirm the birds survival and breeding status. Currently tracking just a single kiwi using ground-based telemetry gear is time intensive taking hours to days, often operating in dangerous terrain or requiring expensive use of helicopters

This technology has the potential to make a significant difference for the Taranaki Kiwi Trust, as well as to support other conservation projects across New Zealand

Carla Moore - Flourish Parenting Hub (Taranaki)

A $30,000 TSB Good Stuff grant will enable the launch of the Flourish Parenting Hub, which will offer professional parenting education and peer support through a new online and physical space

The group aims to foster and facilitate the sustainable, planned, connected and coordinated sharing of knowledge, skills, resources and efforts to promote family wellness related to pregnancy, parenting and whānau, for the benefit of the entire Taranaki community

Currently family service community groups in Taranaki are oversubscribed, lacking funding and operating from temporary premises – this new hub will enable collaboration between the various organisations to reach more people in Taranaki and improve outcomes for families.

KM Medical– NextStep neonatal resuscitation device

A newborn baby's lung compliance changes as they transition to life outside the womb and many require resuscitation. Tragically millions worldwide each year suffer lung and brain damage from excessive volume delivery using current neo-natal resuscitators

That's why KM Medical has developed a volume-control neonatal resuscitator ‘NextStep' which uniquely controls volume to within safe, operator pre-set level

A $30,000 TSB Good Stuff grant will enable the NextStep device to proceed with testing to further validate the technology and progress towards saving more neonatal lives and reducing healthcare dependency and cost.

Information about all the TSB Good Stuff winners can be found at https://www.tsb.co.nz/about/community/good-stuff.