A new voice for Tāmaki

An up-and-coming youth council in East Auckland will provide young people with opportunities to shape their community’s future.

Youth organisation Flipping East is recruiting 12 people under 25 in Glen Innes, Pt England, Panmure and Mt Wellington to form the inaugural Tāmaki Youth Council.

Flipping East’s youth activator Rosita Fa’avesi-Su’a, 24, said the group aimed to transform Tāmaki’s young people from passive receivers of other people’s decision-making to a powerful voice that can impact change in their community.

“The main thing that we want from [the youth council] is to grow youth wellbeing and, through that, foster youth leadership.”

She said Flipping East decided to use the model of a youth council after seeing its success in other communities.

“It’s a really amazing way for youth to come together and share ideas.”

Youth councils, also known as advisory panels or youth voice groups, represent young people’s voices through activities like running events, engaging with elected representatives and submitting feedback to organisations and local authorities.

The youth council is Tāmaki’s second attempt at a youth voice group, with the Tāmaki Youth Advisory Board inactive since 2015.

Ms Fa’avesi-Su’a said Flipping East, who was not involved in the previous attempt to start a youth council, wanted to give the new group a solid foundation to be successful long-term.

“We do want the youth council to be completely autonomous at some point, and that would mean Flipping East stepping back.”

She said this would make sure the group represented an authentic youth voice.

The Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board will partly fund the group.

The local board’s chairperson Chris Makoare said in a statement that the local board was “very proud” to support and help fund Flipping East’s work towards creating the Tāmaki Youth Council.

The Tāmaki Youth Council will also have the support of the Auckland Youth Voice Network, made up of groups from around the region.

Network co-ordinator Sarah Colcord, 22, said it was “awesome” to see a new group start up.

“It’s really positive to see that so many local boards are now starting to pick up on the importance of youth voice groups and the correlation it has with positive youth development outcomes and community outcomes.

“Youth voice groups are important because they provide the voices of young people in spaces that wouldn’t necessarily have youth voice in.”

Ms Colcord said this meant young people could contribute to decisions being made in their communities.