Well what can I say this month. Every month brings new challenges but further opportunities for the young people I work with. It feels like everything is running on task like a rollercoaster and although the work at times gets very tiring it’s very rewarding. This month the core leadership group I work with have really stepped up to the point where I almost have to do nothing and that’s an awesome thing because they all have leadership potential and the ability to do things that sometimes us adults think they can’t. I like to think of it like this:

I’ll Show you, You help me, I’ll help you, You Show me

Having the core leadership team collaborate with South Seas health care program (KIA – Kids in Action) has benefited both sides. Not only do the young people get to come and teach different elements of performing arts to the young people in the program and their parents on a weekly basis but it has also created an opportunity for the parents to participate more through dance. It also has given our leadership team the opportunity to build their confidence, and skills in planning/delivering a program for the participants as well as their public speaking skills. Aside from that they get all the benefits of the program too being “keeping active”. Also the young people have really ganined a reputation for themselves. They always make sure to have representation at the Otara Network meetings as well as any other meetings held in the community that directly impact the future of their community and themselves as youth. It’s really been awesome for me to see them grow and be more connected to their community through our current initiatives and their participation in local meetings.

As a result of all the hard work the youth have been doing I really wanted to treat them to something special this month and just acknowledge the work they have been doing and so I got in touch with my contacts and the end result is that I was able to take them all to the Pacifica music awards held at Telstra at the end of May and boy did was have a “solid” time! They got to dress up and just enjoy the night of awesome NZ Music talent and top it off with the free food provided at the end of the night. It was definitely a good and fun way to end the month!

Untill then we are still busily chugging along and while our leaders of today continue to grow in the opportunities we have been able to place before them I look forward to what the rest of this year will unfold.

Wow – its hit that time of year when good time management can make or break your work load because there is soooooooooooo much happening.

This month, New Zealand celerbrated Youth Week, which acknowledges young people and is a chance for our society to explore ways we can challenge negaitive stereotypes toward them. So for this blog, I thought I’ld write talk about some of my as a Team Leader.

Part of my role this year is supporting our small dedicated team. One of our great team members is Shelley. She coordinates our Positive Parenting Project she has organise a new parenting seminar series for teen parents. Over six weeks she has been busy designing sessions, linking with mums and agencies, organising transport/refreshments and sorting out volunteers for three fun full days of seminars.

Heaps of mums, babies and toddlers took part in six seminars which were focused on a variety of topics including- Building new relationships, Book making, Strategies to encourage positive behaviour, Baby massage, How our babies’ brain grows and the last seminar was on the importance of play. The response has been amazing with more parents interested than we could take – so the plan is to run some more in October.

My role has been to ensure Shelley is well supported and has opportunities to reflect on her work brainstorming, trouble shooting and debriefing. I’ve joined in on the day when time has allowed; we facliated a seminar together and I had the chance to meet and greet new mums – the comments from mums have been awesome – they felt valued as mothers, learnt new skills – like massage, met other mums their own age and shared quality time learning alongside their children.

I know, Shelley would say it been a team effort getting these seminars off the ground, but it is the way Shelley uses her passion, warmth, committment to detail, and youthful enthusiasm that has made them successful, fun and engaging – so big ups to Shell – who does a great job making young mums feel valued, resorced and involved!

She meantioned to me recently that my support gives her opportunies to nut things out, build on her experience and reflect on her practise. I really enjoy this aspect of my role and get a lot of personal satisfaction from it.

As we move into June – September the funding frenzy begins and I will be writing copious funding applications to attract new funding partnership. My support role for the team (which will include two new team members who are starting next month) will have to sustain my passion for Youth Work. I’m going to be doing the less hands on aspects of our work, which takes more personal discipline to achieve.

My photos are from the parenting seminars; look and enjoy – learning by doing.

Arohanui – Young mums rock!

We have had some really important visitors to WAVES this month. Judge Andrew Becroft came to visit and asked the team to keep up the good work. Our group of young people returned from their marae visit with Wayne Poutua and his team, they thoroughly enjoyed their time away and we have seen many positive changes in these young people’s lives. One young man has left the gangs and is now in fulltime work. We have supported him into his tranisiton to work, this included giving him support with lunch making and transport to and from work. We also advocated on his behalf with WINZ and managed to get work clothes and boots as well as a bike to get himself to work.
The WAVES team travelled to Eltham and spoke to the community groups about setting up a youth health and development service. The youth are really keen and have formed a steering group. WAVES is sending Ronnie Lawson our youth worker down once a week to asssit this group to get up and running. They have come up with their own name E Town and are really excited to habve something for youth in a small rural town.
Another exciting time for WAVES is looking at restructuring our board. The past board have done a tremendous job, but if we are to be sustainable and long term, we need to look at getting a very strong governance to lead us into the future.
WAVES has had our 1st birthday and we have had a great amount of support from all parts on the community. We had the local labour MP, the mayor, Darren Hughes, the associate Minister of Social Development, members of the TSB community trust, Kapoi Matheson, spokesperson for Nainia Mahuta, and many young people and their families. The event was filmed and I will send you the sight to view this film. We had the adults doing raps with the young people.
I travelled to Auckland and presented at a Nursing seminar on innovative nursing practice, this was well received at Starship and gave hospital based nurses a view of working in the community.
Many community groups are looking at WAVES and asking the team to present to their teams. This included this month church groups and the Career and Transition Education Association, as well as the local social workers group. We also have had 2 medical students in their 5th year do a week placement and two nursing classes come in for the afternoon.
As many youth are coming in and hanging out after school we are providing workshops in a more structured way. This includes book clubs, money making and entrepreneurs, goal setting and achieving, health sessions including non smoking, art, cooking. Motion picture, drama, parenting, self defense, life coaching, and board games.
Youth week was really busy and WAVES held youth events all week, we also had a graffiti art exhibition where young people showed and sold their work, this challenged the attitudes of many about graffiti and also challenged young people to do this in a legal way.
Another event for us this month was a visit from John Key and his team. He spent about half an hours at WAVES and was impressed with the range of services that we have available for our younth.
The focus for us next month is to look closely at our regulars that seem to have nothing to do, and are dabbling in some very at risk behaviours, and generally making money from prospecting for gangs. We have put in for funding via Judge Becroft and hope that we can gain support financially to support these young people into a more productive and healthy life

WAVES Rockssssssss

Lou Roebuck

Hey guys ) I can’t believe it’s June already!! I’m very pleased to report it’s been another full on 4 weeks; we’ve had our business mentoring confirmed, our Smokefree Pacifica Beats season has begun, our Vodafone ‘Hands Up’ volunteers are good to go, our prep for Involve08 is nearly complete and we’ve got 3, yes, count them, THREE local youth projects starting up round the July holidays. Phew.

Where to start then? I reckon with VEGAS!!! I was fortunate enough to attend a Youth Access To Alcohol hui down in Rotorua in late May and it was an awesome chance to touch base with a whole bunch of peeps from around the motu I’ve not seen for ages, as well as, of course, hear all about ALAC’s new plans to roll out their community action approach for this year and beyond. Much respect to the team for a fantastic hui and please may I take this chance to encourage all of you reading this to go do some research on the new and much improved YATA process!!!

Our prep for those 3 youth projects out east is going well, if a little erratically at times and the main problem, as per usual, is co-ordinating the adults involved We’re getting there though, standby for more updates on them next month.

Next up must be our Smokefree Pacifica Beats stuff. This is definitely one of the biggest beasts we manage, 2008 is our 3rd year of delivery and I’m pleased to say that the logistics seem to be ticking over nicely. Turanga was our first show this year and we had 16 bands take the stage to battle it out for their share of the prize pool as well as the chance to make National Final selection. It was MEAN MAORI MEAN and we couldn’t have asked for a better start to our event season.

And while we’re on the topic, I’m not sure where a lot of the mainstream media are getting their negative youth stories from around those ways but maybe they need to come hang with us coz what we found was a few hundred enthusiastic young people all out to support their whanau and friends both on and off the stage. Massive props to Ruatoria, Wairoa and Gisborne for their support, if this is the benchmark for the year then the other regions better be prepared to step up!!

Meanwhile, back in the city we’ve had meetings this month with Street Dance NZ, NZ Business Mentors and our Vodafone ‘Hands Up’ volunteers, we’ve started to explore a couple of new BIG projects for next year including the inaugural Maori and Pasifika Youth Awards and of course had a hand in some of the Youth Week projects around and about.

… oh, I’ve also managed to squeeze in a healthy dose of the flu but that’s looking likely to be covered more extensively in next months panui… c’mon back then whanau and I’ll fill you in