“In a nutshell; we’re just three ordinary Samoan dudes from South Auckland. No flash qualifications or thick wallets, just three young men on a mission to better our people. We pretty much grew up together and now we’re more like brothers. We had this phase where we were sick of just working weekdays then just wasting it on the weekend and repeating the cycle over and over again, so we thought, why don’t we start something we can call our own … fast forward five years later and God blessed us with Brown Pride. We’re only getting started but we got big ambitions and plans ahead of us. All your support is truly appreciated!”

That’s the introductory paragraph on the Brown Pride website. It was written by their Director, Johnny Timu.

The other two in the original team are Tino Mafoe, the Operations Manager, and Peter Faalili the Finance Manager. Together they established Brown Pride just two years ago. Their goal was to empower young people through fitness, the arts and the community.

Today Brown Pride has a team of six and a sustainable source of income to pay their staff and support some of their programmes. They also have a commitment to getting youth involved in helping their community.

The first idea that the three came up with was a boot-camp weight loss challenge. It was so successful that the next step was to get their own premises where they now run a gym, a barbershop, a music studio, gaming nights, dance classes, and programmes which include pre-employment, mental health and Samoan history lessons.

The gym and the barber shop are the business arm. The hundreds of adults who use the gym pay a membership fee; and the barbershop, Fobcuts, has four staff providing haircuts for men from Wednesday to Saturday. From Sunday to Tuesday there are hairdressers providing services to women.

For young people the gym is free, and there are 30–40 of them in there every week. It’s where the admin team meet and get to know young people and what’s going on in their lives.

Two issues stand out: dropping out of school and mental health. They have now set up programmes to address both.

“We found that many of the young people had dropped out of school and were not working,” says Johnny. “So when Auckland City Council and MSD reached out to us to back us to run a course, we were keen to help these young people to get back on their feet. As all the tutors were men, we agreed it would just be for males, although we do have many young women using the gym.”

The first 10-week course was run earlier this year. The programme included: getting driver and forklift licences, financial literacy, First Aid Certificates, IT skills, cv and interview skills and Pasifika culture.

During each week participants had two days work experience, two days in class and one day where they visited a small business run by Pasifika entrepreneurs.

As the programme proceeded many of the participants were inspired by the stories they heard and decided that they too wanted to set up on their own instead of looking for work elsewhere. So Peter and Johnny provided information about the legal and taxation requirements of running a small business and gave them some practice in how to pitch their ideas.

Of the 15 who started the programme,12 finished. All of them have either got a job or started their own business. Four have enrolled in polytechnic courses.

Not surprisingly the funders are keen to run another programme which will start soon – with a slightly shorter format. We spoke with three of the participants in the programme who are now on the road to success with their chosen careers. Patrick Alesana’s passion is dance. He is 23 years old, has NCEA level 3, now works part time at The Warehouse – and runs dance classes at the gym. The course has given him the skills and determination to make dance a career.

“It was good to be part of a group as you could bounce ideas off each other. I learned how to think outside of the box and how to plan. And I learned time management. The course gave me more confidence. It is good to be in that space.

“When we went and visited other Pacific businesses, I learned that to get what you want you have to work hard at it and it takes a long time. We talked with them about their journeys and found that everyone had had to work hard at it. That was good learning for all of the boys. By the end of the course I felt inspired. I know now that I have the potential to do more. And I’m definitely more focussed.”

Isaac Faitau, another of the young men on the course, is now setting up as a personal trainer: He’s enrolled in a level 4 PT Certificate at MIT and is writing his own six-week boxing training programme: “I’ve already got 10 clients – six this week! “

The team also builds confidence and success through their music studio which, after several years of development now has its own label. It’s called 216 Records and has released 20 mixed tapes and a few singles. [You can listen to 30–40 songs, all written and performed by South Auckland youth, on the music streaming channel.]

Dansoma Leuta is a talented 18-year-old has been able to build his skills in writing and recording. After taking part in the Young Kings course he too now sees opportunities for a career ahead of him. He says that the programme has given him some of the skills and confidence to pursue his dreams.

Brown Pride’s collaborative approach is also allowing them to deliver their mental health programme.

Wesley Faleolo from Love Somebody, a suicide prevention NGO, has been running a 10-week programme at Brown Pride’s gym every Friday night. This too is ongoing. Twenty came to the last course where they learned resilience and ways to help them deal with the problems they go through.

All these initiatives designed to support the individual sit within a Pasifika framework of service.

“In our culture service is one of the pillars we stand on,” says Johnny. “It is big for us.” So they have a Brown Army of young people who regularly support the homeless with food, toiletries, and clothes. Some things are donated, other items are bought with profits from the gym.

When Johnny, Tino and Peter set up the gym they said they had big plans. In just 24 months they are running out of space. They are now looking out for bigger premises.