Waipuna SROI reveals social impact
When independent researcher Sarah Wylie completed a Social Return on Investment analysis of Waipuna’s adventure therapy reintegration programme, she arrived at a headline figure: $15.44 returned for every $1 invested.
But behind that number sits a more nuanced picture of what actually changes for participants, and why. Here are the key themes from the 2025 analysis.
Hope is the foundation
Every single person interviewed in the qualitative component of the research agreed that their sense of hope increased through the programme.
In the broader survey of 75 former participants, across both secondary school and reintegration cohorts, 78.1 per cent rated their feelings of hope as having been impacted to a big or huge degree. For reintegration participants, that figure rose to 100 per cent.
Hope, or more precisely self-efficacy, the belief that change is possible and within reach, is a documented predictor of behaviour change. The research notes that participants who arrived with low expectations or significant resistance often became the programme’s strongest advocates.
“This programme made my life change from being down a very dark tunnel with no light in sight to a place where now even if I ever end up in a dark tunnel again I have the skills, knowledge and support to break out of it.”
Employment as a turning point
54 per cent of active reintegration participants in 2024 were employed; a further 29 per cent were in training.
The research documents that employment is rarely a direct programme outcome. It emerges from a cluster of changes: improved emotional regulation, social skills, confidence, practical support with CVs and licences, and the continued presence of trusted kaimahi after the 10 weeks end.
“Waipuna has changed my life and the ongoing support is awesome. I would be back in prison without their support.”
Physical activity as a lasting tool
71 per cent of reintegration participants increased their physical activity through the programme.
The SROI includes this as a material outcome because the research demonstrates it is sustained. Multiple former participants describe outdoor and physical activity as a primary tool for managing difficult emotions, clearing their head, and maintaining wellbeing, often years after the programme ended.
“Good relationships have come from it, cool experiences that I would never thought of doing in my own time I love doing and to this day it helps me with thinking and gives me my little escape when the head gets a little much.”
Whānau ripple effects
The research identifies significant ripple effects beyond the individual participant.
Among the 19 active reintegration participants who were parents in 2024/25, their 22 tamariki were direct beneficiaries of their changed behaviour. Across all survey respondents with tamariki, 88.9 per cent reported a big or huge impact on how they relate to their children and their hopes and dreams for them.
Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents with children reported engaging with other Waipuna services, including parenting support, the preschool, antenatal classes, and baby massage. The adventure therapy programme is often the entry point into a much wider relationship between whānau and Waipuna.
The conservative case
The SROI analyst is explicit that the $15.44 figure is conservative. It excludes wellbeing improvements to avoid double-counting with physical activity costings, excludes whānau financial wellbeing outcomes as too difficult to proportion, and excludes improvements in antenatal care and wellchild outcomes.
Reoffending calculations are based on just one reoffence per person. Prison time is capped at two years.
“The SROI is likely an underestimate,” the report notes. The full lifetime social value generated from participants in a single year of operation, accounting for the long duration over which the programme’s impacts persist, is estimated at $14,002,701.97.
The research was conducted under ethics approval from the Aotearoa Research Ethics Committee (AREC25_10).
Summary Report
A summary of the independent impact research into Waipuna's adventure therapy programme, covering outcomes and findings from the 2023 to 2026 reporting period.
Social Impact Report 2025
Our full impact report measuring outcomes, reach and the difference our Adventure Therapy services made for people and whānau across Aotearoa.
Impact Report → Social ROI Analysis 2025
Independent analysis of the social return on investment generated by the Waipuna reintegration programme – $15.44 for every dollar invested.