Kāpiti Youth Support (KYS), has been named a finalist in the 2026 The Post Gold Awards for levo, an outcomes measurement model they designed and developed.
The Gold Awards recognise organisations making an outstanding contribution to business, innovation, and community outcomes across the Wellington region.
Following a cluster of youth suicides in Kāpiti, KYS asked themselves the hard questions: how do we know whether the work we are doing with young people is actually making a difference? How do we identify emerging risks early, while also recognising the incredible strengths, resilience, and potential of the people we support?
Led by KYS founder Raechel Osborne, levo has been developed over more than a decade to answer those questions. Much of that journey has been self-funded, driven by a deep commitment to improving outcomes for rangatahi, whānau, and communities.
Raechel brought together frontline practitioners, evaluation specialists, professors of social work and mental health from Massey University and the University of Auckland, and Te Ao Māori advisors to design the underlying outcomes measurement logic that powers the platform. The result is a practitioner-designed outcomes measurement model built around 18 interconnected wellbeing subdomains that influence a person’s ability to navigate change and thrive.
While levo was developed in the youth health and wellbeing sector, its application is much broader. The platform provides a consistent framework for organisations working in health, education, employment, research, and social services to understand what is changing, what is working, and where additional support is needed.
By bringing together multiple practitioners and services around a shared picture of progress, levo helps organisations track meaningful change over time and generate evidence that can inform both frontline practice and strategic investment decisions.
levo has already provided de-identified insights to national agencies, including the Social Investment Agency and Statistics New Zealand, helping improve understanding of the needs and experiences of some of Aotearoa’s most vulnerable populations.
In 2025, levo received the Service Innovation Award at the New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards | He Tohu Mauri Ora.
Raechel Osborne says the Gold Awards recognition reflects years of persistence and belief in a simple idea.
“We wanted to build something that could help save lives, strengthen services, and give the sector a practical way to understand what is truly making a difference. It has been a long journey with lots of ups and downs, but we have never lost sight of why we started.”
As levo begins to scale nationally, the mission remains unchanged: to help organisations measure meaningful change, strengthen what works, and improve outcomes for future generations across Aotearoa.
The Post Gold Awards 2026 gala ceremony takes place in July at Wellington’s Embassy Theatre. The premier business celebration for the Wellington region and Horowhenua honours outstanding enterprises across 10 distinct categories, with finalists having been announced in early May.