1 September 2016

Media Release

Mangere youth want to be part of the solution

Mangere youth want to have their voices heard as part of a new initiative looking at developing solutions to some of the systemic issues in this community highlighted by the recent incident of youth’s street brawling in Mangere East.

“We are the ones who live in this community. We have ideas about what will and won’t work. We want to be around the decision-making table where issues that relate to us are being discussed,” says Kamaljeet (KJ) Hundal.

KJ is a leader in ‘Do Good Feel Good’, an initiative that supports young people to generate their own solutions to the issues they face. Do Good Feel Good’ works with young people in Mangere to develop youth-led responses to improve the health and wellbeing of young people living in the area. A focus on supporting 10 youth leaders through coaching and mentoring support has provided an opportunity for young people to express their views about what local solutions might work.

“Economic deprivation may just be a word to some people, but it’s an everyday reality for our young people and their families and it impacts on all areas of their lives,” says Tilly Fetaui, Project Manager, Do Good Feel Good.

“What we are seeing on a daily basis are underlying issues such as parents working long hours and still struggling to provide housing and food on the table. While parents are out working, young people are spending a lot of time on their own and can either find themselves taking on increased responsibilities caring for younger siblings or getting in to trouble,” she says.

The ‘Do Good Feel Good’ initiative came about in part to ensure that parents and their children weren’t missing out on opportunities to build a connection and a close relationship due to families being forced to work several jobs or undertake shift work. The social and economic deprivation facing many of families in Mangere means that going home afterschool isn’t the same experience for many of the youth in this community as it is for better-off New Zealander’s.

“This community is facing complex problems which require a whole of community response – including from young people themselves”. “Issues like access to affordable housing and homelessness in Mangere are just the tip of the iceberg. Poverty, violence and other forms of deprivation are incredibly stressful for young people,’ says Mrs Fetaui.

Several of the young people engaged through the ‘Do Good Feel Good’ initiative have reported that increasing numbers of young people in the community are leaving school early to get any job they can to help their parents.

ENDS

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