DofE

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

Challenge yourself, discover new passions, and create a journey that’s uniquely yours.

About Us

What We Do

Auckland Challenge is Aotearoa’s oldest and most experienced Open Award Center.
Find out what we do, and how we can help!

Who We Are, What We Do

We are coordinators of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award for the greater Auckland Region. We coordinate The Award on behalf of several schools as well as providing an opportunity to do The Award for youth who have left school, home schoolers and those attending schools where The Award isn’t run.

Our role is to guide you through The Award, help you find activities, approve and verify your activities, mentor you through, and sign off your Award.

Don’t have an Award Unit?

Auckland Challenge is an Open Award Center for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. This means anyone can sign up to do their Award through us!

If your school doesn’t run DofE, you can’t do DofE through your school, or your existing Award Unit isn’t working out for you, you can sign up to do your Award through Auckland Challenge!

Leaving School?

If you are leaving school and still have some more work left on your Award it doesn’t mean you have to stop!
You can transfer to Auckland Challenge to continue your Award once you leave, there is no charge for this service.

To transfer your Award to us you need to email the National Office and request your Award is transferred

Pathway

Choose Your Pathway

Want to extend your Award with something different?
The Award offers three pathways to build your Award around to make it uniquely yours!

1

Traditional

This pathway is great for anyone wanting to follow the classic Award Pathway, build their challenge and gain their Award.

2

Kākāriki Journey

The Kākāriki Journey is an Award endorsement for those who focus their Skill, Service and Journey sections around the environment!

3

He Aratūtahi

Embracing the holistic concept of whanaungatanga. Focus your Service, Skill and Journeys around te ao Māori concepts

Level

Choose Your Level

Pick the challenge that suits you.
With three levels to complete there is something for everyone!

Bronze From the year you turn 14

Minimum 6 months to complete

Bronze is the first level of The Award, for your Bronze Award you need to complete 13 hours of two sections and 26 hours of one section. We recommend everyone starts at Bronze to get a feel for The Award

SilverAges 15+

Minimum 6 months to complete

Silver is the second level of the Award, for Silver you need to complete 26 hours of each section if you have completed Bronze and an additional 13 hours if you haven’t

GoldAges 16+

Minimum 6 months to complete

The highest level of The Award | For Gold you need to complete 12 months of each section if you have completed silver and an additional 26 hours if you haven’t. You also need to complete the Residential Project.

Activities

Choose Your Activities

The Award is your Award, for each section pick activities that will challenge you and help you to grow.

Voluntary Service

The Voluntary service section must meet a genuine need and is anything you do to help others; environmental service, youth work and charity service are a few examples. Anything unpaid you do to help people outside of your family will probably count.

Skill

For the skill section you can use any hobby or mental activity that is non-athletic; games, music, arts and building are just some of the many activities you can use. Use something you already do or take up something new!

Physical Recreation

For the Physical Recreation section you can use any activity that is for your physical wellbeing such as individual or team sports. Ball sports, athletics, martial arts and water sports are just a few of the may activities you can do. As a general rule, if it raises your heart rate – it counts

Your Activities, Your Way

For each of the Skill, Voluntary Service, and Physical Recreation sections you can do more than one activity. This means there is plenty of flexibility for seasonal activities.

You can count up to four hours of activity per section towards your Award progress each month.

Plus

Adventurous Journey

For the Adventurous Journey Section you will complete training for your journey followed by two 2-4 day camps depending on your Award Level. There are many types of camps to go on – biking, kayaking, horse riding, urban or bush to name a few! Find out more about the Adventurous Journey section here.

Residential Project (Gold)

For the Residential Project you will go on a 5 day trip, with a purpose, away from home with people you don’t know; this could be an environmental, service or educational trip.

Get Started

Begin Your Journey

Are you ready to take up your Award Challenge? Get started in three easy steps! We’ll support you the whole way

Step 1

Sign Up

Start by Enrolling in The Award with Auckland Challenge as your Award Unit.

Step 2

Make Contact

Set up a meeting with one of our experienced Award Leaders to get you started on your Award!

Make a meeting

Step 3

Log and Achieve

Log all the activity hours that you do and join the thousands of youth taking part in their Award!

Still not sure? That’s OK! If you want to talk about your options and how The Award could benefit you feel free to reach out to us to discuss your options

Email Us

Set up a meeting

Call us

Contact

Contact Us

We are here to help!
With dedicated Award Leaders available whenever you need, you can get the answers you need in a way that suits you.

Adventurous Journeys

For information about the Journey section, please email us

You can also join one of our partners‘ journey options, or see our Adventurous Journeys page

Award Support

For general Award enquiries please email dofe@aucklandchallenge.org.nz

You can also give Kathryn our coordinator a call on 0274916618

Make a Meeting

Admin Support

For finance and admin enquiries please email admin@aucklandchallenge.org.nz

For IT Services, and ACORN technical support please email it@aucklandchallenge.org.nz