Empowering Wellington’s future through technology
At Matamoe Innovation Hub, we believe every young person should have the opportunity to explore, create, and innovate with technology. Our free, hands-on programmes introduce kids and teens to the world of robotics, AI, coding, and game development—regardless of their background. With your support, we can scale our impact and bring these transformative experiences to more communities across Wellington.
This year, we have a goal to reach 1,000 kids across Wellington in 2025—help us achieve this milestone and make a lasting difference.
Our Impact
2026
so far
2062 1327
attendances students
45% 46%
maori & pasifika wahine
494
attendances
330
students
26
programmes
after school
749
attendances
227
students
17
programmes
holidays
15
schools
819
students
45
classes
inspire in schools
How you can make a difference
Volunteer your time and expertise
Mentor a Team: Help a team prepare for RoboCup, Game Jam, or CreateJam, supporting them as they prepare and compete in competitions. Share your expertise and inspire young minds to excel. Volunteers work closely with teams, offering guidance, troubleshooting challenges, and encouraging creative problem-solving.
Guide an NCEA Student: Mentor a senior student working on a tech project to help them achieve their goals. This involves regular check-ins, sharing industry insights, and supporting them through their learning journey.
Ready to inspire young minds with your tech skills?
Sign up as a Volunteer
Support a School Hackathon or Themed Day: Join us for a full-day hackathon or themed day at a local school, assisting students as they tackle exciting challenges. Volunteers help facilitate workshops, offer technical support, and encourage teamwork. Themes include:
- Robot Day (building candy dispensers and exploring robotics)
- Motion Capture Day (capturing students’ movements and integrating them into games)
- Virtual Design Day (Design 3D worlds in VR and other tools like rooms.xyz)
- AI/ML Day (building AI and machine learning apps in a single day).
Looking to give your team a meaningful volunteer day experience?
Register your organisation’s interest
Sponsor a Programme and Expand Our Reach
We offer free, 8-week afterschool programmes providing all materials and trained, police-vetted tutors. Our innovative curriculum focuses on creativity, engagement, and hands-on learning. Each sponsorship option includes both a core class for beginners and an extension class for advanced learners up to Year 13.
Our programmes are currently available in Strathmore Park, Porirua, and Wainuiomata. We need your help to reach more of the Wellington region.
What we teach:
3D Printing
Game Development
Robotics
VR Applications
Coding
Motion Capture for Games
AI and Machine Learning
Want to help grow future tech talent? We’re looking for sponsors to support school hackathons and STEM programmes.
Reach out to John at [email protected] — we’d love to kōrero about our sponsorship options.
Inspire at schools programme
Our “Inspire Programme” brings technology learning and discovery to schools across the Wellington region. We bring a 4 week programme of Coding, Robotics and VR to schools to inspire our rangatahi to learn more about tech and increase their digital confidence. Inspire in Schools is a free programme supporting schools with limited access to STEM learning and resources.
We are currently supporting the following schools:
Titahi Bay School
Ngati Toa School
Kahurangi School
St Brigid’s School
Titahi Bay Intermediate
Heretaunga College
Viard College
Taita College
Wainuiomata Intermediate
Wainuiomata High School
“As a Decile 2 school, Taita College students don’t get a lot of opportunities to experience coding or virtual reality. Most would say that a career in coding or tech is too hard or beyond their capabilities.
Matamoe has shown them this is not the case. We’ve had three one hour sessions so far and the students have already learned how to code a robot to complete a maze. Matamoe delivers the learning in a way that is simple and accessible but most of all FUN!
The students have been engaged in the sessions and were easily able to transfer the skills from one session to the next. We feel really lucky to have Matamoe working with us and the students are looking forward to the future sessions.” – Cathy Peek, Assistant Principal Taita College
“The staff and students at WIS have loved having the opportunity to learn and apply digital technology learning through the Matamoe programme. It is run every Friday in our Science room, each session is just over an hour. We have three classes scheduled for a four week rotation.
During this time Matamoe take students through activities such as human robots, microbit coding, VR and robot maze. Students have loved the VR and robot maze sessions.
It has been great having Matamoe deliver a programme that we don’t have expertise in. The gift of exposing our students to digital technologies and applications has been valuable and greatly appreciated.” – Charmaine Russell, Assistant Principal Wainuiomata Intermediate School
Help us keep Matamoe free for all of our rangatahi
We believe every child deserves the chance to explore, create, and innovate — no matter their background. At Matamoe, we offer free STEM programmes in robotics, coding, AI, 3D printing, and electronics to tamariki and rangatahi across our communities.
Your donations help us cover essential costs like robotics kits, batteries, 3D printer filament, and electronics components. Every contribution, big or small, helps us reach more kids, in more schools, and keep removing barriers to learning.
If you’re able to support, you’ll be directly helping the next generation of creators, problem-solvers, and innovators.
Donate
Join us in empowering the next generation
Your contribution—whether through volunteering, mentoring, or sponsorship—helps us break down barriers to technology education and unlock new opportunities for young people across Wellington. Together, we can inspire the innovators, creators, and problem-solvers of tomorrow.
Get in touch: [email protected]