Adventures doing a POWA of good

At the heart of everything Kate Parr does is a deep commitment to inclusion, something she has a knack for explaining.
“I’m the kind of person who gives a shit. Those are the words I use: ‘Do you give a shit? I give a shit’,” she says.
“My staff and I care if someone is not participating because of a barrier. And we fix that barrier.”
Whether it’s the disabled or Muslim communities, or women who simply can’t afford to be involved in sport, Parr cares a lot. Her goal is to get more females being active, building their confidence and resilience, and engaging with the outdoors.
So far, 355 women and girls have undertaken her outdoor adventure days in the Waikato, which have just won a national sports award.
Over the past two years, Parr’s Pirongia-based business, First Steps Outdoors, has run 14 adventure days through the POWA and GIRL POWA programmes. Their participants use words like: “Life-changing … priceless … extremely valuable”.
“We have women who are so emotional to have achieved something they never thought they’d have the courage to,” Parr says.
The programmes won this year’s Women in Sport Aotearoa innovation impact award, with WISPA chief executive Nicky van den Bos saying: “We love this initiative. POWA and GIRL POWA are such supportive and inclusive programmes for wāhine in the Waikato and beyond.”
POWA stands for Pirongia Outdoor Women’s Adventures, and Parr credits the global pandemic for creating the conditions that catalysed the “by women, for women” adventure days.
“During Covid I had a lot of time to think about the future of First Step Outdoors,” Parr says. The organisation’s “bread and butter work”, running school camps, had ground to a halt.
She reflected on the enormously popular women’s adventure day she’d once run as a fundraiser for the local preschool – and the hunger that existed for more.
“People had always asked, ‘When are you going to run that adventure day again; it was the best day of my life’,” Parr says.
“So I started to run adventure days, with archery, climbing, abseiling, ziplining, for everyone who’d approached me before Covid and who’d now been stuck indoors.
“We ran some really successful days and then started to run tramps and the community grew just like that. I’ve had so much feedback about how amazing the opportunities are. When we stand and reflect on what we’re actually achieving, it’s a beautiful feeling.”
Among the glowing feedback from POWA participants were requests to engage their teenage daughters.
“The women kept saying, ‘It would be great if you could do this for my daughter because she’s at home not doing anything, stuck on social media, and she’s lost a lot of confidence’,” Parr says.
“At the same time, Sport New Zealand launched their research on why young women weren’t engaging and we realised it was a prime opportunity to use the research and roll out a programme.”
Enter GIRL POWA – outdoor adventure days where teenage girls are joined by a significant female adult in their life – typically their mum, grandmother, aunty or sister.
“The adults and teens support and inspire each other,” Parr says, explaining the GIRL POWA adventure days have included learning to cave, mountainbike, climb and kayak.
“They get to see and believe that adventure is definitely not just for boys.”
The programme overcomes many of the barriers to girls’ participation indicated in the Sport New Zealand research, Parr says. “Things like cost, getting to venues, having a support person with you and not being on your own.”
And she’s convinced it’s important to offer adventure days for females only.
“It makes a big difference not having guys there,” she says. “We notice no one feels under any threat to perform. It’s just about going as high as they’re comfortable with – challenge by choice. We don’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to.”
Yet often the participants end up surprising themselves.
“We didn’t realise what a massive impact this programme would have in building resilience and a sisterhood. They all say it’s about the support, companionship, and finding things in common. We had such a laugh on the weekend, talking about which comfy undies to wear on a tramp. I told them: ‘These are not the conversations we normally have when running tramps up the mountain’.”
Parr has seen the outdoor adventure industry evolve during a 36-year career that almost didn’t happen. Growing up, when she told the career counsellor at her Greater London school she’d like to become an outdoor instructor, she was told such jobs didn’t exist for women and was handed information about secretarial school.
Undeterred, even while facing countless subsequent rejections, Parr eventually scored her first role at an outdoor centre in Epping Forest. Her inspiration, she says, comes from her stepmother Dianne Stone – now 82 years old – who ran a girls brigade company and Duke of Edinburgh Award expeditions, and demonstrated that girls could do anything.
“She’s always been my role model, I guess because of her can-do attitude,” Parr says. “If it wasn’t for her, there’s no way I’d be doing what I do for a job now.”
Parr ensures activities at First Step Outdoors are accessible to groups with disabilities. And at this year’s New Zealand Outdoor Instructors Association symposium, Parr will run an inclusive practices workshop sharing her knowledge about adapting outdoor activities.
“Instructors know how to run climbing sessions, but let’s make them inclusive,” she says. “Whatever the reason somebody is not being included, anything physical or mental, try and reduce the barriers.”
For many years Parr  has collaborated with WOWMA (Women’s Organisation of the Waikato Muslim Association) to enable young Muslim women to experience outdoor activities in a safe and supportive environment.
The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand (IWCNZ) highlighted her work in a recent LinkedIn post: “Kate Parr has worked with us to find solutions for over 16 years, getting IWCNZ membership scaling cliffs, paddling rivers, trekking through forests, and skiing down mountains. So when someone says, ‘Muslim women can’t’, please CHILL! And let them know, we’ve got this.”
According to Parr, it’s all about seizing the day; carpe diem is her mantra. But she has an eye to the future, too.
Her current priority is to secure funding for future GIRL POWA programmes so they can continue to be subsidised for those who otherwise couldn’t afford to participate.
Parr is also preparing a group of 20 women to climb all 959 metres of Pirongia-o-Te Aroaro-ō-Kahu (Mt Pirongia): “We’ve got a group of local women who’ve never been to the top of their mountain, so that’s really exciting.”