TIMARU DISTRICT COUNCIL MEDIA RELEASE

Council to co-design new model of youth engagement

Timaru District Council is taking another look at how it works with and consults young people to try and help stem a national decline in political engagement amongst youth.

The council is seeking young people to get involved in co-designing a new model for youth engagement in Timaru District that will enable more youth to get involved in the decisions that affect them.

As part of this change, the current Youth Council has gone into recess, the members will be invited into the working party to help design and get involved in the new model.

Councillor responsible for Youth Engagement, Sally Parker, gave credit to the work of the youth council over the past year saying that they had provided a strong voice for what can be an underrepresented group of residents.

“We’d like to take the opportunity to thank the Youth Councillors for their work, which has got us some way down the path of improving youth engagement, and we look forward to working with them to help take it to the next step.

“We’ve decided to go back to the drawing board ask young people to design and own a process of engagement with the council that they feel better meets their needs and wants and give them a more representative voice to council.”

The council is currently working on organising initial sessions to highlight the work and invite comments and ideas. More details will be announced shortly on the council website and Facebook page.

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