NATIONAL FORUM
Our Youth – Our Future
Hamilton 25 – 26 July
Over 200 people, including Mayors, Deputy Mayors, Councillors, government Ministers, practitioners and council and government officials attended the two day forum in Hamilton and Otorohanga in June 2007.
Our Youth, Our Future
A full programme of keynote speakers and workshops focusing on youth transitions, gave participants a diverse and challenging view of working with young people to ensure positive transitions from school to further education, training or work.
Keynote speaker Dr Karen Vaughan, New Zealand Council for Educational Research, reported on her research from a five-year study of young people’s experiences and perspectives after leaving school, giving a fascinating insight into the lives of these young people. Key themes emerging from the research were security and exploration and that young people experienced these two things in a number of different ways. Another key finding was that many of the young people in the study talked about work reflecting “who” they want to be not “what”. They were most interested in “how they could be in the world” and saw career planning as a “process rather than a product”. Karen believed the challenge for people working with young people was to look beyond participation and work towards development.
Forum question time
Olly Te Ua Community Development Manager, Hamilton City Council spoke of the need for Councils to be serious about their investment in youth to achieve the Taskforce’s vision. He outlined a number of initiatives from Hamilton City which were doing this and noted the increase in resources to bring the Council’s youth vision and policy to fruition. He said that Councils needed to invest in growing the passion, pride and ownership of communities – very clearly a Council role under the Local Government Act.
Celia Lashlie and Cath Kerridge outlined the features of the Nelson/ Tasman Connections programme which was ensuring all young people under 20 were engaged in their communities. What was working was the relationships developed with providers and the collaboration of government agencies. Celia also reminded the audience that the programme was into its third year and what was needed was a long term vision and the investment in time to make the linkages and relationships work Cath noted that essential to her role as the co-ordinator was the support she had received from the steering group and the time she had been given to develop lasting relationships with the various sectors.
Networking over lunch
Four very different transition services were showcased in brief presentations from the Hamilton Youth Transition Service to the Southland Service and schools and employers experiences from Huntly and the Waikato region. They shared their experiences and numerous success stories which showed the flexibility needed to work with young people, demonstrating that “one size definitely does not fit all”.
Minister David Benson-Pope also addressed the gathering congratulating the Taskforce, praising the people working in this area and noting the great potential for further development of the Youth Transition Services. He said that despite the great deal of good work already going on there was clearly a need for long term investment in the area and he believed this would be best achieved by collaboration between central and local government.
The first day ended with inspiration from Hamilton motivator Tama Dean and an amazing performance from the Huntly Fusion youth dance company.
Huntly Fusion Youth Dance Company
Day two of the forum was held in Otorohanga where participants experienced the wonderful hospitality of the small town and were shown first hand the achievements possible with the leadership of the Mayor and the buy-in from the whole community. A variety of people from the community hosted participants at the new Harvest Youth Centre with its impressive climbing wall, the Trade Training Centre and Employment Shop, the Children’s Art Centre and the College Gateway programme, followed by great entertainment from the College’s barber shop group, and a close up look at a real live tuatara.
The forum was a great success with many connections made which can only improve the support and development of our rangatahi.
Download copies of the presentations from here.
WHY MAYORS?
Mayors are:
- Directly elected and they have a collective ability to speak to the whole community, take civic leadership and facilitate collaboration and genuine partnerships across all sectors
- Passionate about their communities
- Committed to providing opportunities for all their citizens to participate
WHY YOUTH?
- Research shows those who make a successful transition from school to education, training and work have better life long outcomes.
- NZ is suffering widespread skill and labour shortages so we need every young person to be fully engaged in our communities.
- NZ needs to train its young to help fill our skills shortages.
- The demand for entry and lower level skilled workers is also growing.
- There is global competition for skilled labour.
- Youth are an underutilised source of labour.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Taking Mayoral leadership to engage with government Ministers, officials, agencies, community groups and the private sector which have key roles in employment is the way the Taskforce works to achieve its vision. Partnerships with government agencies and Ministers provide the Taskforce with an opportunity to discuss policy issues and inform the policy making process, particularly to ensure that policy is relevant at the local level. Working across all sectors and encouraging collaboration between agencies ensures the most effective service delivery and efficient use of resources, currently through:
- Increasing youth transition services, modern apprenticeships, industry trainees
- Using Long Term Council Community Plans to engage locals
- Working with central and local government officials to develop sound policies and projects
- Using Mayors’ collective voice to lobby on behalf of youth employment
- Recognising and using the power of the Mayor’s office