Building Regional and Local Networking

The Wellington Regional Youth Worker Trust is made up of a group of individuals that come together to represent the youth development sectors from various rohe around the lower North Island. We advocate for, train, and upskill the youth development workers in our regions. We tautoko the professionalisation of youth work.

With this in mind, we have had the privilege of building and being a part of various youth development networks in the lower North Island. We have endured the blessings and challenges that come with developing youth worker networks.

It would be our pleasure to share some of our learning, our practical steps, our structures, our failures and our successes with you. Our hope is that we could encourage you to either start or continue to build your own youth development networks around Aotearoa. We will also allocate some time for a korerorero question and answer time.

It shouldn't take a disaster to collaborate

Following the 2010/11 earthquake sequence, the need for sector
connectedness was at an all-time high to ensure that our young people, youth workers and the wider sector could collaborate and coordinate a response and recovery - and ultimately adapt to the new normal of a post-quake region.

This presentation will take you briefly through the Strengthening the Youth Sector (SYS) project's life cycle, its major outcomes and outputs, opportunities, and where SYS is today.

Connecting the Connectors: The benefits of building a network of youth participation groups - and how to do it

Building a stronger platform and support network for our rangatahi is our passion. The Youth Voice Canterbury Network offers a place for young people to network and connect, where opportunities to get involved are presented, where professional development and workshops can occur, and where information and resources can be shared in a supportive and accountable way.

Our presentation provides an overview of our journey to be where we are today, and why we believe each region should also have a network of their youth-based, youth-led participation groups. We come with Top Tips to help start a network and connect with young people as well as how to overcome challenges that may stand in your way. This is all presented by the Youth Voice Management Team - all whom are aged 18-23 and have a range of experience both outside of, and within, the youth sector.

Values based youth co-design

Young people, having established reference or advocacy groups, often find themselves targeted by organisations or individuals who wish to 'consult' or partner with them. This can be both flattering and overwhelming. In 2015 the then Selwyn Youth Council developed nine values that they used to prioritise their work. They used these values to help them to decide what actions and projects they would commit to. These were promoted to their community and potential partners who were invited to join with them on projects if their values aligned. These values were adopted and now inform the running of a community house in Rolleston which was a dream of the local youth.

Mental health, alcohol, smoking and LGBTQ: What is the latest research on young people telling us?

There is a huge amount of research about young people, but we are often so busy in our daily mahi that we don't get time to absorb it. Join researchers from the Health Promotion Agency as we highlight some of the latest youth research, and discuss how you can interpret the research in your everyday work. Topics will include:

• Mental health: Young people are much more likely to report feeling isolated than older adults. What do we know about strategies for enhancing connectedness and mental wellbeing?
• Alcohol: How are young New Zealanders drinking? What does the evidence say about the role of parents in supporting their teens to be alcohol-free?
• Tobacco and vaping: How close to smokefree is our youth population? How is vaping changing the smoking landscape?

HEeADSSS updated: Vaping, social media and pornography -
how do we ask those questions?

HEeADSSS is a psychosocial screening tool to enable you to unpack what's going on for your young person. Think of sitting having a coffee with the young person, roll out HeEADSSS and 'dig deeper'. You will learn how to ask the tricky questions (like SEX!) without getting embarrassed, and learn the skills of being a naive enquirer!

This workshop will develop your communication skills with young people and give you confidence to dig deep.

Te Ara Waiora ā Tāne and Moana Loa: Two examples of how our ancestors could guide us today

This workshop provides an opportunity to share an innovative, creative way to introduce the importance of indigenous narrative, Purakau (Te Ao Māori origin narratives), and Pasifika ideologies as an integral part of cultural engagement for youth development services and learn about other effective indigenous models of delivery.

There are also opportunities for attending youth practitioners and researchers to identify the synergies between cultural practice and youth development frameworks.

Good Vibes: Your guide to running alcohol free events for young people

Zeal, with the Health Promotion Agency, have drawn from the first-hand experiences of young people attending events, and the leading voices in event promotion and management to produce a free and definitive guide to running epic alcohol-free events for young people. Whether you're planning a small club dinner, school ball or massive concert, the Good Vibes guide takes you from start to finish through running a successful event with a positive buzz. From initial fundraising through to evaluation, all the key markers for a successful event are covered, as well as some of the things to look out for! Come along to find out how to access, and make the best use of our web, video and print resources.

Success: How to show who is 'better off' using a simple framework

This bus stop presentation will use a simple results based accountability framework (plan on a page) which demonstrates who is better off as a result of engaging in a particular programme. It also presents other components of the programme: stakeholders, outputs, activities and participants feedback. It shows both qualitative and quantitative information.

The three main points of the presentation are:

1. You need to be very clear about what your programme will achieve
2. Build an evaluation process into a programme from the planning phase, and
3. Keep track of how things are going with a small, simple and sustainable monitoring process.

Scope Review: Partnering with youth development organisations for Positive Youth Development outcomes

This session will look at how Scope can assist youth development organisations to improve the quality of their services to young people in Aotearoa New Zealand.

• The Scope standards
• The Scope review process
• Scope Assessors - who are they?
• Establishing Scope in a region

Looking forward: the best way to predict your future is to create it.

This panel will provide inspiration and provocation about what’s ahead for young people, our sector, and Aotearoa as a nation. We’ve stacked a panel with informed, critically engaged and passionate young people, and with the audience we’ll generate a hopeful and experientially grounded view of the changing economic, environmental, demographic and societal context that young people are growing up in.

Wicked Tooth Fairy: Making a difference in oral health care for young people in Nelson

The Youth Consultation survey in 2016 identified that access to health and wellbeing services were difficult for some young people due to cost, lack of transport or chaotic families that are unable to support their whanau with basic needs. One in four young people do not access free oral health care services. We know that poor oral hygiene is part of a bigger picture of a community system that needs additional support and resourcing to enable healthier outcomes.

The Wicked Tooth Fairy is our answer! The purpose of the service is to:

1. Support young people to access oral healthcare
2. Liaise with free dentists, schools or places of education or work and provide transport, support to fill out forms and advocacy when at the dentist.

This is a free service.

Supporting school nursing in New Zealand

Our presentation will review the challenges faced in school health,
acknowledging the significant efforts made by many professionals
committed to improving health services delivered to youth in secondary schools.

We will then present our recent research from last year into service
challenges, and introduce the exciting new development in response to some of these challenges, including web-based resources aimed at supporting best clinical practices in school health services.

Attendees will leave with knowledge of our newly developed, easily
accessible, purpose built website, and knowledge of how to utilise the content to enhance the care and support they offer young people. Attendees will also have the opportunity to critique and make suggestions for further development to support clinicians working in school health services.

Looking Forward: Another milestone in nurse prescribing

The changing health needs of the population, inequitable access to healthcare and the opportunity for nurses to maximise their scope of practice has shifted the tradition of medical prescribing. This shift has seen the development of an innovative model of nurse prescribing within the community. Nurse prescribing in the community allows for improved access to medicines at the point of care.

Thirty three nurses completed the 'Registered Nurse Prescribing in Community Health: Trial and Evaluation' within Counties Manukau Health in 2017. Preparation included a blended education programme, clinical supervision and credentialing of competence to prescribe within this scope. Clinical pathways guide decision making and medication selection. Registered Nurse prescribing promotes collaborative team work, improved assessment and clinical reasoning skills, and improved access to healthcare services.

This presentation shares the journey of how nurses working in the community are able to prescribe for common health conditions, thereby reducing barriers to health access.

Kaiārahi/Kaitautoko: Leadership in the youth development sector

Anya will deliver a hilarious and inspirational workshop/brief presentation on 1) what constitutes powerful leadership in our sector, 2) how the principle of whakamanatanga supports a flourishing youth development ecosystem, and 3) some key ideas and concepts for leading people and organisations in the youth development sector.

A data-literate sector: an update and invitation to contribute

Data is becoming a much more dominant feature of the youth development, government and funding space. In response, Ara Taiohi has developed a Digital Strategy that will enable us to analyse and respond to this new environment. Our vision is a learning, data-literate youth development ecosystem that ensures that our sector's work with young people is shaped by the big picture and supported by good information.

We'll be sharing our four pou that have been built for the sector, by the sector, and driven by the desire to support collaboration and create good youth development data infrastructure. These are a digital visualisation tool, Takiwā, a unique Aotearoa Youth Development Index, a Self-Review tool for organisations and a Training App that supports practitioners in ongoing professional development.

All tools are underpinned by a robust evaluation methodology, infrastructure and ethical framework. We're excited about updating you all and getting feedback to shape where to next!

Census for change!

Imagine what we could achieve if we worked with a range of passionate and skilled New Zealanders of all backgrounds and ages to create a tool that can benefit the community in many ways.

Ashley, a young person and social entrepreneur based in Dunedin studying a Bachelor of Leadership for Change will be presenting her concept 'Census for Change'. Having confidence in the concept she believes it will not only provide opportunity for people to come together from different sectors but be a breakthrough for youth development and empowerment informing communities.

MANAvation: A mana enhancing approach to youth engagement

MANAvation is a rangatahi centered approach to supporting youth engagement and the enhancement of wellbeing by utilising mana enhancing practices and indigenous concepts such as whanaungatanga, tu-rangatiratanga and wairuatanga.

MANAvation supports a shift in whānau, community, youth sector and societal thinking by challenging the status quo and introducing a fresh approach to understanding: the needs of rangatahi; perspectives of wellbeing; AOD - Alcohol and Other Drugs and mental health; the importance of connection and purpose within a wider collective; and the tuakana - teina relationship needed to support a generational movement of enhancing the wellbeing of our future leaders.

Attending delegates will witness how this tangata-centered approach can work to enhance whaiora connections through the use of real life rangatahi journeys, and also have the opportunity to participate in a hands-on exercise utilising this approach.

Radical Shift: Valuing young people's expertise in youth engagement

This workshop will challenge participants to rethink their assumptions about the role of young people who have experienced disadvantage in driving organisational, sectoral, social and systemic change.

Using a combination of practice experience collaborating with young people to develop and run innovative youth engagement initiatives (i.e. Y-Change), and the learnings drawn from a recent Churchill fellowship (report available here) examining young people's role in driving social change, Lauren will lead participants through a series of interactive activities that inspire a radical shift away from traditional approaches to youth engagement.

The SaySo Project

A presentation on the collection of stories told by young people around New Zealand concerning struggle, strife and overcoming issues. Using ethnography we wish to share the insight we have collected; diving into the risk and resilience of young New Zealanders, the feedback we've received, the value of building a library full of stories for people tackling similar situations.

Silencing youth through numbers

Research has shown that education is a key predictor of the future health of young people. This presentation will describe how youth lose their individual voices and their health in an education system that is fond of 'governing the youth population' by numbers.

The political rationality of neoliberal policy and its reliance on spreadsheets, course completions and individual responsibility substitute the need to 'speak' with youth in the 'real'. The collection of data creates 'simulated data doubles' of surveillance that replace the connection with lived bodies.

This presentation explores the impacts of neoliberalism on youth health, the pressures of self-responsibility and the impact of being 'under the gaze' of educational policy.

Igniting hope in dark spaces: Conversations between research and practice

The YDSA arose in the 1990s in response to the ashes that had been left by the political changes and broken practices of the 1980s. Children were the causalities of these changes and practices and the YDSA was the response to enable change through positive youth development practices.

Since the 1980s, inequality has risen and the most affected are taiohi. In this snapshot, we discuss the initial findings of a three year research project funded by Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, Nga Moemoea o Apopo (Dreaming the Future). We then take these findings and engage in a wider conversation with practice to see what is happening in communities where all hope may appear to be lost to enable young taiohi to reach for, and achieve, their dreams.

Let's make a new story

The old political story has led to a bigger gap between rich and poor, created the working poor, and depression has become the leading disability in the world. Trickle down hasn't worked. The mantra has evolved that if you work hard, and get lots of qualifications you will get a high paying job and do well. Health, education and infrastructure services have deteriorated, with money going to business and the making of more money taking priority over the provision of services. Cutbacks in service provision have multiplied with people being told to fend for themselves.
What will replace all this? Let's find a new story that works for all. Three illustrations of things that we can do to make a new story happen will be presented. Please bring what you think should create the new story and share it!

Rethinking our approach to drugs

Our drug laws do damage - particularly to Māori and young people. Of those convicted of low-level drug offences, 42% are Māori and nearly half are under 30 years with a conviction having lifelong implications. The black market also results in highly dangerous drugs like synthetic cannabinoids being cheap and available.

The status quo is not holding and NZ is already talking about changing our laws - but what should this look like? We see a future where society stops punishing people that are using drugs, and the law allows people to make more informed decisions and have access to support.

Through this interactive presentation, with fun quizzes, quick upskilling and peer-debates, we will explore key questions around age of access, how drug laws can be improved for young people, what effective prevention looks like and how we can be advocates for changes to drug policy.

Cultivating love, kindness and empathy in schools and homes: The TYMS Pacific youth wellbeing perspective

The Tuilaepa Youth Mentoring Service (TYMS) is a local community provider of academic, cultural, spiritual, and recreational resources for young people who are excluded or at risk of exclusion from school and their communities.

Our work aims to provide the young person with the skills to be resilient and also to become more productive members of their community. Though our research and evaluation we have found that TYMS accomplish this through the focus on two areas: the executive function and social cognition. The executive function and social cognition are associated with the prefrontal cortex, which is situated in the frontal lobe part of the brain. The executive function is used to describe the capacity that allows us to control and coordinate our thoughts and behaviours. These skills include selective attention, decision-making, voluntary response inhibition, and working memory. Social cognition, on the other hand, focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations. The way we think about others plays a major role in how we think, feel, and interact with the world around us.