Anahera Pickering: Youth Week - We are speaking, are you listening?

A group of young Northlanders near the summit of Mt Manaia, Whangārei Heads. Photo / Supplied

FRESH PERSPECTIVE

Youth Week from May 9 to 17 is a nationwide festival of events to celebrate the talents, passion and success of young people and 2020 will highlight the theme, "We are speaking. Are you listening?"

Nobody likes Mondays, unless it's the first of the month. That's when a bunch of us get together to offer our services, share ideas and spread the word about how we support young people to be a better service to you.

Way back, a few people around the motu (region) called themselves Te Tai Tokerau Youth Networkers Committee. This was for kaimahi (staff) that worked with youth from up North, in Kaipara and Whangārei. Faced with learning, trials and errors like we all do, the kaupapa (project) relaunched in 2004.

The vision for the hui was to work together to support young people better and the network grew until there were 250 people involved, sharing ideas and supporting one another's mahi.

Now called the Whangārei Youth Network, over the years organisations have either worked as a collective or individually to run events for Youth Week. In the past they've encouraged young people to get among it and design the Youth Week t-shirts which is a great way to value a young person's creativity.

Originally, I was hoping to launch this year's Youth Week with a festival which obviously caked it due to the epidemic so that means it will be postponed until next year. If this is something you'd want to be a part of, get in contact through my email below.

This year the youth sector will be running events and competitions on social media so make sure you, your whanau and friends get involved and stay connected!

Check out WYS facebook to find out what you can get involved with throughout Youth Week! We will share more about other awesome competitions and events that our other friends get up to as well so #watchthisspace.

Don't forget to use #youthweeknz for any content related to Youth Week to go in the draw for a prize.

• Anahera Pickering is community outreach co-ordinator at Whangārei Youth Space. She can be contacted at Anahera@youthspace.co.nz .