That’s why, for the past five years, his van Asch Foundation’s delivered, for free, ‘The Leap Within’ resilience programme for 2000-plus year 10 students across Queenstown, Taupō and Auckland.
Having proven its value, Queenstowner Van Asch this week launched The Lead Within as a workplace programme for corporate and community organisations.
It’s described as a workplace personal growth and leadership programme applying the same core principles as the youth initiative — helping individuals and teams build trust, confidence and the capacity to perform under pressure.
Every paying adult funds two young people through the programme.
Van Asch says his foundation and The Leap Within result from 35-plus years observing the transformational qualities of bungy — people stepping forward towards something that scares them.
"I’m proud to be able to draw on a lifetime of challenging people to find their inner potential to create this charitable initiative focused on building a more resilient generation of NZers."
The programme’s psychological framework was designed by prominent clinical psychologist, Nigel Latta, who died last year.
Latta’s wife Dr Natalie Flynn, who’s also a clinical psychologist, is leading the continued development of The Leap Within’s programme content.
The programme’s also been developed in collaboration with Dr Lucy Hone, who’s director of the NZ Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience — her TED Talk on resilience has been viewed more than nine million times.
Van Asch Foundation CEO Sarah Cairns says after five years of testing, refining and measuring the programme within schools, the results are clear.
"Courage and resilience are skills that can be learned.
"The opportunity now is to scale up and establish a model that allows organisations to invest in their people, while making a measurable impact on the next generation."
