More young people contribute positively to their communities

We support young people to play a positive role in their communities and become active citizens.

Improving the lives of young people

During 2013/2014, we continued to fund youth programmes that develop and promote active youth citizenship. We supported non-government organisations and local authorities to work with young people through the Services for Young People Fund and the Youth Development Partnership Fund. This included support for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award, the Spirit of Adventure Trust, the Young Enterprise Trust and SCOUTS New Zealand.

In early 2014, we rolled out the Youth in Emergency Services programme across six communities, in collaboration with the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management. This programme encourages young people to volunteer with their local rural fire or other emergency services. Participants gain a range of marketable and transferable skills. The programme will be expanded to a further 20 communities over the next two years.

Through the Youth Enterprise Initiatives over the next three years we will support young people to develop skills and experience to participate confidently in their communities. The Initiatives focus on financial literacy skills, business enterprise education and social enterprise.

Acknowledging right choices

The Prime Minister’s Youth Programme aims to foster and celebrate achievement by young people who have faced challenges in their lives and have been recognised by their schools, youth workers, New Zealand Police or social workers as having taken positive steps to manage these challenges.

One hundred young people from South, West and Central Auckland were selected to participate in the 2014 Programme in one of four structured week-long activity programmes. They also received ongoing support to strengthen the positive decisions they have made in their own lives.

Improving health and wellbeing

The Prime Minister’s Youth Mental Health Project aims to improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people who have mild to moderate mental health issues or are at risk of developing them. During 2013/2014, we continued to deliver a number of initiatives under the project.

During the year, 15 youth workers were appointed in 16 decile 1-3 secondary schools in Auckland, Hawke’s Bay and Wellington through the Youth Workers in Secondary Schools programme. The youth workers mentor young people at risk of disengaging from school, to improve their wellbeing, school engagement and achievement. We also supported the development of Common Ground, a new online hub for parents, family and friends of young people to access mental health information.

We continued to support the Lifehack project through the Social Media Innovation Fund.

Lifehack brings together young people, non-government organisations, entrepreneurs and IT specialists to develop new online tools to promote youth wellbeing. Four regional Lifehack weekends were held in April 2014, which provided community members with the opportunity to generate and test ideas that will make a difference locally.

Involving more young people in decision-making

During the year, we continued to support young people’s participation in decision-making within their communities. This included facilitating youth input into the Prime Minister’s Youth Mental Health Project, the Greater Christchurch Youth Resilience and Wellbeing Survey in the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes, and the development of a Youth Strategy for the Department of Corrections.

Through the 5,000 members of the Aotearoa Youth Voices Network, we connected young people with a variety of opportunities to participate in international youth leadership initiatives, including the Y20 Youth Summit in Sydney, the World Conference on Youth in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. We will also help the New Zealand Defence Force select a youth delegation to represent New Zealand at Gallipoli centenary commemorations.

We have been supporting work on initiatives to improve regional planning for young people with local and central government agencies, such as Auckland Agencies for Youth, Intersect Waikato and Collaboration Bay of Plenty.

In preparation for the 2014 General Election, we worked with the Electoral Commission on ways to increase youth voter enrolment and engagement with the electoral process.

Youth Parliament

Youth Parliament was held in July 2013. It comprised 121 Youth Members of Parliament (Youth MPs) and 20 Youth Press Gallery members, who were selected to discuss and debate issues of importance for young people.

All Youth MPs and Youth Press Gallery members had an opportunity to participate in community projects over a six-month tenure period following Youth Parliament. Feedback from young people, Ministers, MPs and community members on the 2013 Youth Parliament was positive.

How we demonstrate our success

Note: Result changes below 1 per cent between 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 are considered not statistically significant.