Listening to the voices of the Hutt Valley

Hutt Valley youth mostly feel cheerful, active and interested in life according to a youth survey taken last year.

2800 young people responded to the Hutt Valley Youth Survey 2010, a comprehensive view of the wellbeing of young people undertaken by the Upper Hutt City and Hutt City Councils in collaboration with Police, Regional Public Health and other agencies including Community Action Youth and Drugs (CAYAD) Hutt Valley, WellTrust, Secret Level and Vibe.

Discussing wellbeing, 80 percent responded that they were positive about their life, most of the time, but 25 per cent had felt depressed at some time.

Drug use and excessive alcohol consumption were issues identified most often in the responses to the survey. Other concerns were violence, safety and criminal or bad behaviour such as bullying.

Improvements in leisure opportunities were identified but there was still a shortage of places to “hang out” and job opportunities had worsened over the year to August 2010.

Today a newscast video summary of the results http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBbod0yuC1w 

created by young people from both cities is being launched. It can be viewed at www.uhyouth.com or www.huttcity.govt.nz/youthsurvey

Lower Hutt Mayor, Ray Wallace says the council is committed to listening to the views of young people, “We have a responsibility to ensure our young people are catered for and an obligation to listen to what they are telling us.

”Upper Hutt Mayor, Wayne Guppy said young people are vital to the future of cities in the Hutt Valley, “We are here to listen to the voice of youth and work with all the agencies to meet the needs of our young people.”

This year’s results follow previous surveys carried out by Upper Hutt City Council and form the basis of involving young people in Council and their communities.One of the issues raised by the survey was knowing how to access services. CAYAD Hutt Valley is launching a Youth Help campaign where young people can access free support for health concerns, social services and business information in the Hutt Valley.

Both cities recognise the outstanding contribution by young leaders to their communities, Upper Hutt with its Young Achiever Awards, and Lower Hutt with its City Mayoral Citations which will be announced in September of this year.