Back on stage: HB Jammers brings music and joy back to Hawke’s Bay disabled youth

HB Jammers participants during a Wednesday workshop at Greenmeadows East Community Hall. Photo / Rafaella Melo

When national disability charity StarJam collapsed in November 2024 it left more than 60 young people in Hawke’s Bay “devastated”.

Many said the weekly music and dance workshop was “their only social option”.

But the community wasn’t ready to let the music stop.

They banded together and built a local charity from the ashes - HB Jammers.

Long-time volunteer and now president of HB Jammers, Vicky Oakman, said the group received an email last year stating the programme would close and stop immediately.

“It was really shocking and upsetting. There was no notice, so we couldn’t prepare the jammers.

“Some people didn’t even get to have their last session,” she said.

After a meeting with volunteers and parents, they rebuilt the programme, and within three months, formed a committee, registered a new charity, secured funding, and relaunched five weekly workshops in Greenmeadows, Hastings and Havelock North.

“It was a lot of work, but we are so proud of it,” Oakman said.

“We currently have five tutors, and each workshop has three volunteers. And we have a committee of eight.”

HB Jammers now hosts about 60 participants and plans to expand to Flaxmere. Photo / Rafaella Melo

For 23-year-old Grace Bryant, the return has been received with “love and joy”.

“There aren’t a lot of things in Hawke’s Bay for children or people with special needs, so it was hard,” her mother, Andrea Bryant, told Hawke’s Bay Today.

Grace has a full-time carer, volunteers at SPCA, and helps out at church. But the HB Jammers is something that she can deeply connect with.

“Since she returned to the workshops, she is really happy and a lot lighter in spirit because she’s got something to look forward to,” Andrea said.

Andrea Bryant with her daughter Grace, 23, who’s found joy again through the workshops. Photo / Rafaella Melo

The same is true for 20-year-old Poppy, who is non-verbal and lives with Down syndrome.

Her mother, Marge Brown, told Hawke’s Bay Today the programme gives her daughter a sense of “independence.”

“She knows the volunteers by name. That is huge because she doesn’t even call me mum.”

Poppy, who communicates with only a few words, would ask for StarJam every Wednesday, even after its closure.

“It’s given her something to look forward to that mum isn’t a part of.

“I just bring her, drop her off, and pick her up, and I don’t worry. So that’s how important this is for us,” Brown said.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s sunny or raining or freezing cold, we come because it’s something she really values.”

Marge Brown and her daughter Poppy, 20, who lives with Down syndrome and attends HB Jammers weekly. Photo / Rafaella Melo

Kayla Van Zyl, 26, described the workshop as “people with disabilities getting together to have fun”.

“I was very excited when I found that they were back. I think I even screamed,” she said.

Kayla Van Zyl, 26, was thrilled when the workshops returned: “I think I even screamed.” Photo / Rafaella Melo

HB Jammers has about 60 jammers aged eight to 30 and hopes to expand, including plans for Flaxmere workshops.

“The more volunteers we have, the bigger we can open the community up and the workshops up to more jammers,” Oakman says.

The programme is budgeted at about $45,000 a year to cover instruments, equipment, insurance, admin costs, accountant fees, and T-shirts.

“For them, it’s a belonging,” Oakman says.

To keep the beat going, the group still needs funding.

“We are stoked that we’ve got some sponsors. Sports Hawke’s Bay has come on board, Gilby Design, who did our logo for us, we’ve also got Little and Fox, and Markham Distributing as well.

“We are also very lucky to have support and use of school halls at Ebbett Park School, and Havelock North Intermediate.”