Youth Voice Canterbury October 14th 2014 Youth Connect Report

Youth Connect ReportOctober 14th 2014

OverviewOn the 14th October 2014 Youth Voice Canterbury came together for their second Youth Connect meeting after the first initial Hui in May.

Held in Kaiapoi at the Rivertown Café, we had an amazing turn out with about 30 people coming from all over Canterbury and from various Youth Participation groups. Of those that signed in 6 had not been before, and those that came were from groups including: Waimakariri Youth Council, WAIYouth, Christchurch Youth Council, Te Ora Hou, Selwyn Youth Council, Hurunui Youth Programme, Hurunui Youth Council, PYLAT, and UC Red Cross.

The night began with hot drinks and connecting, followed by introductions and an ice breaker selfie challenge. Tayla started with a recap of Youth Voice Canterbury, the last Youth Connect in July, and went through the programme for the night. The main features of the night included:

A presentation from the Youth Friendly Places and Spaces work stream A website update Youth Mentoring workshop Youth Engagement workshop

Youth Friendly Places and Spaces The Youth Friendly Places and Spaces work stream is the newest in the Strengthening the Youth Sector Project and are currently working on three projects:

The Youth Relevant Design Check Card:

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Youth Voice Canterbury October 14th 2014 Youth Connect Report

This will be sent or given to developers, designers, and architects to inform them of what they need to do to make any proposed places and spaces youth friendly. This Check Card features headings such as safe, appealing, accessible, resources, and youth friendly to inform the user of how to make a place or space great for young people.

Youth Friendly Space Audit: Stemming from the Youth Relevant Design Check Card, the Audit will be used by young people and organisations to audit public and private places and spaces that young people use or are potential users of.

Neat Places:Neat Places will be an online map (and hopefully a physical map too!) that will highlight neat places in Canterbury as identified by young people.

Penny Prescott and Hamish Flynn from the work stream showed a presentation explaining their work stream and these projects and asked for YVC to collaborate with them and help audit places and spaces across greater Canterbury. This is a great opportunity for young people to have a voice in the rebuild. A good structured format has been set up to make it happen and make it easy for young people to get involved. If you wish to be involved by test running the audit or want to take some photos and do a write up on a place for the neat places map email penny@cantyouthworks.co.nz

Website UpdateTrystan Swain, a member of the YVC work stream, talked about the new Youth Voice Canterbury website and showed all the tile options available (Pasifika, Activities, Waimakariri, Voting, Christchurch, Environment, Hurunui, Tangata Whanua, Selwyn). New ideas for tiles from young people included Transport, Education, Employment, and Citizenship (to possibly replace Voting). Trystan also talked about the process for youth guides, that there is a handbook and a Facebook support page.

The address for the website is http://www.youthvoicecanterbury.org.nz/ - check it out and send any feedback/ideas to tayla@canyouthworks.co.nz

If you want to become a youth guide for any of the topics mentioned above email trystan.swain002@myd.govt.nz

WorkshopsAt the first YVC Hui in May 2014 the Youth Voice Canterbury network discussed the barriers to youth voices being heard by decision-makers. At the first Youth Connect in July 2014 these ideas were unpacked further during a ‘conversation café’ session, including discussions around: a Youth Mentoring Scheme, making the youth voice and being engaged cool, developing a database for youth, and

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Youth Voice Canterbury October 14th 2014 Youth Connect Report

youth engagement. At the October Youth Connect we work shopped Youth Mentoring and Youth Engagement further.

Workshop One: Youth Mentoring SchemeBackground: At the July Youth Connect the idea of developing a Youth Mentoring Scheme was to support young people in leadership roles, or to enable them to gain entry into areas that interest them. By having a ‘guide’ in the sector you wish to work in you not only make hugely valuable connections but you also gain a huge amount of insight into the actual operating structure of that organisation.

The workshop at the October Youth Connect was run by Laura Hatwell, member of the Youth Voice Canterbury work stream and the Christchurch Youth Council Coordinator. She talked about what a mentoring scheme is/means: “it supports young people in leadership roles; it empowers them to gain entry into areas that interest them.”

Wesley (a member of PYLAT and FOCYS and a young person in the Youth Voice Canterbury network) talked about his experience of what being a mentor is like – about building relationships, being a leader, talking to them how they want to be talked to. Penny asked young people what kind of mentors they would like. Ideas came back from young people including: friendly, kind, open, knowledgeable in the right/applicable area (for example a social worker might mentor a social work student). An idea given was that you could mentor a potential ‘future mentor’.

What followed was an activity where there were 4 stations that each presented a different question. These were:

1) What do you want to get out of youth mentoring?

2) How do you see the mentor being found?

3) How would mentoring meetings work?4) How do we even being to co-ordinate

regulating mentoring?

In groups the youth rotated around each of the stations to give their perspective which allowed them to have a say in the development of a youth mentoring scheme.

The answers included:

What do you want to get out of youth mentoring?Experience, for mentors to pass on skills, life skills and behaviours, knowledgeable people, SWAG, the opportunity to further your prior knowledge, direction, networking, ideas on what we can do, opportunity to share and talk, inspiration, a friend, socialising, furthering your

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Youth Voice Canterbury October 14th 2014 Youth Connect Report

contribution to the community and to young people, improving peoples outlook on youth, skills, developing a 2-way street of development, empowerment, more involvement from youth and mentors, someone to answer questions you may have about a field/profession, and connections to people in your desired profession.

How do you see a mentor being found?Local community groups, community events, through schools or towns, volunteering, friends, industry, nationally or internationally, Facebook/social networking, communication, parents, ask people if they would like to be mentors, SWAGOLICIOUS PEOPLE, radio or public announcements, posters/flyers/billboards, through council and community boards, on the radio, ask skills successful people, through the YVC network and youth councils, and by treating this like an organisation.

How would mentoring meetings work?However the person being mentored wants, in public spaces, appropriate timing, regular contact, informal but organised, youth directed, changes to what you are mentoring, through skype, relaxed, be approachable, relatable and be what the young person needs, verbal or practical mentoring (both talking and action), in a safe and relaxing environment, individually tailored to mentor/mentee, 2-way conversation, comfy environment, YOLO #SWAG, in a quiet safe place, adaptable, in a different and creative way, and definitely over food!!

How do we even begin to co-ordinate regulating mentoring?Focus on employment (getting youth into the workforce), a facilitator for the mentors to touch base with, check for demand, a well-known person/people, ask young people, find a co-coordinator, feedback from person doing mentoring, determine goals/aims, write a policy, making it more known to people, start small, guide to mentoring, training and support, money, office area for facilitator, look at what’s already out there, find out what is wanted from the mentor first, approach businesses and industries for interest, find the right people who are relatable and friendly, police checks, and determine target audience.

Several young people said they would be keen to join/help their work stream. All agreed that Facebook is the easiest way to communicate. Young people interested in continuing working on this wrote down there emails.

Workshop Two: Youth EngagementBackground: At the July Youth Connect we discussed that there is a need to consult with young people and this can be done through a range of approaches. It was discussed that social media is at times too relied upon for engagement with young people. Organisations need to utilise the modern technology to connect/think and don’t limit to what has been done before. It is important to engage with groups that

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Youth Voice Canterbury October 14th 2014 Youth Connect Report

are established in communities with the purpose of being a youth voice or are already linked in with young people to best engage.

Hannah Dunlop, Project Coordinator of Youth Recovery at Red Cross and member of the Youth Voice Canterbury work stream ran the youth engagement workshop at the October Youth Connect. Hannah talked about working together to get a list of “rules of engagement for YVC”. Lots of groups want to recruit and consult with young people – so what are the “hoops you want them to jump through” to get YVC’s help/ideas/input. Here are their ideas:

Flowchart of the process:

Criteria:- Does it benefit/affect youth?- Will YVC be able to contribute to the project?- Will the feedback given be used?- Is it reasonable for YVC to be involved with?- Will the engagement be understandable and youth friendly enough to

give effective feedback.If NO to all/most questions then we are not interested.

Food is important. We would need to know how they want us to implement it. Feedback is wanted to we know our time isn’t wasted! Maybe a rep is reported to and then reports to YVC. We could have interested YVC youth as representative for specific areas (youth guides?)

We want them to treat young people as equals – a mate not a boss. Understand that a young person’s time is valuable. They need to have tolerance for youthfulness and not be too boring. They must be careful how they interpret youth – don’t misrepresent.

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Contact YVCYVC filters the organisation to the right participation group

Engagement with Young

People

Must include food (or reimbursement of some type)

YVC follow up

to ensure the ideas have been taken on board

Youth Voice Canterbury October 14th 2014 Youth Connect Report

Overall the night was a success and allowed Youth Voice Canterbury to continue forward as a strong youth participation network celebrating youth voice and input.

The next Youth Connect will be on Thursday 11th December from 6-8pm at 301 Tuam Street (Christchurch Community House). There will be a Christmas theme, lots of free food, and is planned to include a workshop on the Employability Skills Framework (to generate youth input), as well as presentations from each of the youth participation groups within the YVC network about who they are and what they work on.

If you are interested in joining the Youth Voice Canterbury network or work stream email tayla@cantyouthworks.co.nz

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