We are incredibly excited to share some good news with you... We made it! ARCO is officially one of the 11 social enterprises chosen to be part of the Ākina Launchpad, a programme to get social enterprise ideas off the ground.

After 3 months of an intensive interviewing process, kicking off with our film debut, we are really happy to be joining the great line up of teams and mentors from around New Zealand. 

The first workshop will be in Auckland next week and we can't wait to meet the other amazing social enterprises and our support team of business guru's that we'll be getting to know very well over the next 6 months. 

Thank you for all your support so far to get us here! We really appreciate it. 

Keep up to date with ARCO's updates on our blog and our facebook page. 
And remember, vote for Ana Heremaia for the AMP People's Choice Awards. It's just three easy mouse clicks. Thanks! 

It seems voting is in the air this month for NZ and while the votes are in on NZ government, they're not on the AMP People's Choice Scholarship!

We'd love you to support ARCO by voting for the lovely Ana Heremaia, here. 

As you might know, Ana is the co-founder of ARCO, and with the help of your vote she will use the funding to help with the start-up of our community project in the far north. ARCO's mission is to help marginalized youth move into education, training and employment and more importantly show them that they have the capacity to achieve. 
Thank you in advance for your vote.

Go Ana! 

Ruby and I are so very lucky to have a new face at ARCO headquarters. Felicity Brenchley a registered architect with nine years experience in professional practice, has joined our team making ARCO a party of 3! Felicity is one talented lady, not only is she an amazing mum to our smallest ARCO recruit Loki, but she also runs her own business Crafted Studio. 

While we're at it, big thanks to the following ladies who have been stellar in helping us push our ARCO vision forward. The Lovely Miss Sophie Joiner, a marketing and communications guru, who has offered so much time already, even from atop a snowy mountain! Jessica Hubber our super talented Industrial designer friend whose brain we racked over chelsea buns (thanks Callum!) and marvel woman Melanie Catanuto who has introduced us to the world of finances, numbers and all things scary.

A few weeks ago I was handed a beautiful Ruby Watson hand drawn card and a brown paper bag, by the one and only Ruby Watson. Yes, I am very fond of brown paper bags but what I found inside brought me pure joy! My very first hammer! No doubt my Fuller PRO will be well used in the up coming months as we move from paper to workshop.