Youth Action, Auckland City’s first youth policy developed under the principle ‘by young people, for young people’, has won a special recognition award in the 2001 Core Values Awards for Excellence in Public Participation.

The international awards, staged annually by the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), recognise excellence and innovation in the field of public participation and were held earlier this month in Vancouver, British Columbia. The IAP2 is a non-profit corporation that aims to promote and improve the practice of public participation internationally.

Two projects were awarded Project of the Year at this year’s ceremony. However, Youth Action impressed the judges so much that they awarded it a “Special Recognition Award”, the only such award given in the Project of the Year category.

Many of Auckland City’s young people helped to create Youth Action, both in leadership roles and also through the Auckland City Youth Council, workshops, focus groups, youth forums, the development of a video and ongoing opportunities for feedback.

The chairperson of Auckland City Council’s Community Development Committee, Councillor Penny Sefuiva, helped to initiate Youth Action.

She says it is the high level of participation by young people that has gained the project international recognition.

“It was the process of creating Youth Action with such strong youth involvement, as much as the policy itself, that warranted and has achieved reward,” she says.

“We were also very fortunate to have such a high calibre of young people working on the project.”

ENDS

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