NPDC Leads Country for Youth Initiatives

Working closely with young people in the community has resulted in New Plymouth District Council winning the Youth in Local Government Supreme Award 2008.

The council won the Active Citizens Award category before taking out the supreme title for its Youth Strategy, which the judges called an excellent example of how council staff, the Youth Subcommittee and youth reference groups can work together successfully.

The judges added: “This is not a document that is gathering dust on a shelf nor is it a token gesture to keep up with larger authorities. It really is a document that has meaning and has proved to be an effective tool to enable the council to be a youth-friendly organisation, as well as encouraging youth participation in our community.”

South Taranaki District Council was runner-up in the Supreme Award for its Get Connected project, marking Taranaki’s dominance in local government youth work.

NPDC Manager Community Development Bry Kopu says taking a fresh look at the needs of young people every year is the key of the Youth Strategy’s success.

“Every year we look at the Youth Strategy and prepare an action plan for the coming 12 months that identifies what our young people need, and how we’re going to deliver on that year’s initiatives,” she says.

“Two of those recent projects were the development of a Youth Services Directory so that young people know what services are available in the community for them, and the Youth Friendly Toolkit – which was originally an internal document for the council but which grew into a handy guide for other organisations who wanted to work well with young people.

“We were blown away to win the Supreme Award at the Youth in Local Government conference. But more importantly, we’re really happy that young people and organisations in our community are seeing tangible benefits from our Youth Strategy work.”

The Active Citizens Award was for the best example of how youth councils, staff or young people engage young people on local government issues and influence change in their community.

NPDC’s Youth Strategy was also runner-up for the Award for Partnership Work– the category won by STDC – for the best example of collaboration between youth councils, agencies or departments on an issue or problem within the local government sector.

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