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Waitākere
Ranges Local Board
22 September
2016
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Portfolio
update - Member Saffron Toms
File No.: CP2016/20871
Purpose
1. This
report provides an opportunity for Member Saffron Toms to give an update with
regards to activity within his portfolio areas.
2. Portfolio
holders are responsible for leading policy development in their portfolio area,
proposing and developing project concepts, overseeing agreed projects within
budgets, being active advocates, accessing and providing information and
advice.
3. Member
Toms has lead for the portfolios of Environment, Biodiversity and Youth.
Youth Portfolio Report (2013-2016)
4. This
report is to sum up the last three years in the Youth Portfolio space with
comments under these broad themes: Voice; Belonging; Opportunities and chances
to succeed; Getting around; Places to meet and play; Youth and the environment.
Finally there is a brief summing up section.
Voice
5. The
local boards in the West inherited the Youth Council model from the old
Waitakere City Council. Although the Youth Council had several members from
Henderson-Massey, and the Whau local board areas, Waitakere Ranges struggled to
attract and maintain representatives. Auckland Council is now reviewing the
model and looking at other ways to engage with young people in the west. Going
forward, there may be value in creating a local board-specific Youth Council
and or exploring other opportunities to engage youth in governance decisions
and direction. It would also be great to experiment with enabling young
people to take a more active role in events planning – events by young
people, for young people. Waiheke Local Board, for example, has a huge youth
involvement in the Christmas parade and this model serves to make the events
more engaging for the young. The fact that this model also serves as a
mentoring opportunity for younger kids to learn from the older ones is
particularly exciting.
6. This
year we funded the media organisation, “Outlook for Someday” to
deliver a Pacific-focused workshop with young people on sustainability-themed
film making , to complement a range of workshops held across the region.
Unfortunately, due to bereavement, the workshop (to be held at Ceramco Events
Centre) was unable to be delivered this year, but will go ahead next year.
Belonging
7. We
are excited that ZEAL is now focusing on Glen Eden, and soon working in the
village a few days a week. We hope that the approach of their youth workers can
assist young people to feel safe and foster a sense of belonging and value in
place.
8. We
are also excited to be on the precipice of spending approximately $1million on
a civic space in the Glen Eden town centre. It is this Board’s intention
that youth will be engaged with both the concept and design phases with a view
to creating a place that fosters a feeling of belonging.
9. We
have also supported our schools as they reach out to the wider community,
including supporting Prospect School Community Day. We also gave a grant
to Peer Health Development Trust for a civics’ engagement programme for
young people.
10. We put extra budget into
the Kauri Karnival for youth-specific activities and were blown away
by
the talent from young performers.
Opportunities and chances to succeed
11. At the beginning of the
term it was difficult to engage staff from the Youth Connections team
to
work with our local board. I was told that as Henderson-Massey Local Board and
the
Whau
Local Board were signed up to the Youth Connections programme, and as we lacked
employers,
comparatively, we were not a priority to work with. It was very frustrating. We
held
meetings with service providers to discuss how the Waitakere Ranges Local Board
could
put together a job summit, in a way that was not duplicating what was offered
in the
neighbouring
local board areas. There was a lot of positive energy in the room and lots of
people
excited to offer something in Glen Eden, tailored to the needs of the youth of
our
area.
This will happen.
12. I am relieved that, with
the new broker role, we have been able to get some Youth
Connections
staff time and have been able to progress some youth-employment related
projects,
including partnering with Youth Services West to deliver job-ready and
transport
workshops
in Glen Eden, as well as offering on-site drop-in services. I hope we can
expand
on
this in order to get more permanent youth service provider presence in Glen
Eden.
13. We have also been proud to
continue the board support of Tula’i, a mentoring and
leadership
programme targeting young Pasifika people, delivered by the West Auckland
Pasifika
Forum. This year’s intake was very impressive and at their graduation
they
displayed
a raft of talent and confidence. Congratulations!
Getting around
14. Public transport is very
important for young people and for the youth that live in our outer
areas,
increasing public transport is essential. The Board funded a feasibility study
on
feeder
buses similar to the Kowhai Express in Rodney district. We eagerly await the
report,
which
we understand is complete and hope to have some trials up and running in the
near
future.
15. Increasing
our greenways connections (walking and cycling) also benefits young people and
we have put considerable resource into prioritising and implementing projects
that link existing walking and cycle ways as well as improving pedestrian
access. While we celebrated the completion of the Mountain Road pathway
recently, we really look forward to the completion of the cycleway that will
link Oratia Settlers’ Hall with Parrs Park and hope to complete the route
to the Sunnyvale Station soon. Perhaps benefitting the largest number of young
people will be the improved crossing from the dairy of West Coast Rd to the
park, Hoani Waititi marae and the kura. We are also working on safety at
Albionvale village where, assisted by Community Waitakere, the Board is
bringing the community and key people from Auckland Transport together to come
up with traffic calming solutions.
16. We
have also engaged EcoMatters to run a “bike kitchen” where people
can bring in old and broken bikes and be assisted with fixing them up. There
are lots of opportunities in this model for young people to gain practical and
work experience that could be useful on their CV as well as gain confidence.
Places to meet and play
17. This
Local Board has also been working on ways to get more out of already existing
recreational spaces, both within Glen Eden and in our outer areas. These
include investigating public-private partnerships, lobbying to the Governing
Body for more resources, and possible aquatics project/s. Examples include
Swanson childrens’ skatepark, which will be extended near Swanson
Station; and we are working with trusts in Piha with a view to delivering new
park facilities for children and young people. We have also assisted
Laingholm Primary School with a small grant to help kick-start fundraising for
a new school playground.
18. We
have a new contract in place with Sports Waitakere which is focused on
activating parks as places to play and recreate for young people as well as
focusing on health and wellbeing more generally.
19. Also
worth mentioning is a Titirangi Waka Ama Feasibility Study (pursued under the
Sports and Rec portfolio) and a youth-focused nursery project at Hoani Waititi
marae.
Youth as environmental stewards
20. We
thoroughly enjoyed visiting Prospect School to present them with some
assistance to plant bee-friendly gardens to help welcome their new beehives. We
have supported EnviroSchools and Wastewise schools and kindergartens by
attending prize-givings, awards ceremonies and paying for new signs, and we
fund programmes such as “Little Sprouts” to assist our young ones
to learn more about and connect with nature.
21. The
Karaka Award, part of this Board’s environmental champion awards is an
award that targets young people working in the environment. We are
pleased to congratulate the winner of the category, Woodlands Park
School, as well as the Orchard Group from Henderson Valley School, who won a
judges’ commendation at this year’s inaugural “Love your
Place” hosted by EcoMatters Environment Trust.
22. We
are advocating for the retention of Education for Sustainability programmes in
the Local Board area because we see these as vital for healthy and thriving
future generations.
In sum
23. The
restructure of the Council’s Community Development, Arts and Culture
(CDAC) has resulted in the WRLB having a community broker based on site for
about 30 hours per week. For the youth portfolio, this has been invaluable.
Claire Liousse, in the new broker role, has enabled much more local
concentration on networking and proactive engagement with providers and
community groups alike.
24. I
hope the next board pursues more projects where young people can take more of
an active role in design and delivery of youth-oriented events – events
for young people, by young people. I am particularly interested in
collaborating on a youth-focused event to take action against climate change,
which I have been referring to as a “youth climate jam”.
25. With
the most recent rounds of significant restructuring, including massive parks
restructuring and the looming review of Education for Sustainability, local
board members need to keep a watchful and active eye, making sure to feed in
and advocate as much as possible for retention of services where they are most
needed.
26. Our
young people are our future and there is so much at stake. With jobs scarce,
wages low, the oceans and forests in serious decline and as the reality of
climate change becomes undeniable, what is needed most seriously is for young
people to be empowered to take control of the future.
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Recommendation/s
That the Waitākere Ranges
Local Board:
a) receive the portfolio update from Member Saffron Toms
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Attachments
There are no attachments for
this report.
Signatories
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Authors
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Tua Viliamu - Democracy Advisor
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Authorisers
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Glenn Boyd - Relationship Manager Henderson-Massey,
Waitakere Ranges, Whau
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