The first meeting to establish and strengthen queer-straight alliance groups in the region was heralded a success.
Six local schools met at Napier Girls' High School on Tuesday led by Wellington based InsideOUT, a group which aims to make the country a safer place for minority sexualities and genders.
InsideOUT national co-ordinator Tabby Besley said there was a lot of great conversation around the subject and hoped it inspired people to make changes in their own schools.
"We had about 20 people there and some staff came too, which was great as we had a lot of positive feedback from them."
Ms Besley said they gave the students ideas on what worked well and how they should keep moving forward.