Gen Y Commit to Making Christchurch the World’s Leading City by 2050.

Near on 100 students from schools and tertiary institutions from across Christchurch took part in a three-day workshop to create a vision for Christchurch 2050.

Aged between 11 and 30 years old, the young people shared their vision and workshopped their ideas under the guidance of local young leaders and professionals.

The event was organised by Louis Brown and Amanda Keefe of the Social Innovation Trust and One Christchurch. “Youth Vision 2050 is a first step in capturing and harnessing the potential of 100, 000 young Cantabrians to be on the frontline of the cities rebuild,” says Mr Brown.

The vision and ideas will be collated to form a 10-page Youth Vision document that will be presented to policy makers and politicians to consider at this coming Saturday’s UNESCO-sponsored event.

Margot Shanahan, 16, from Rangi Ruru says she became involved because the rebuild is for her generation, “We’re the ones who will raise our families here”. She is particularly concerned about how long it is taking for the ‘red zone’ to be opened up to the public. “It’s been three months. We’ve got to get a move on otherwise our city will lose people.”

Jackson Olds, 13, from Christchurch Boys High says he came along because he thought it would help with a school project. “I’m becoming a bit more involved than I thought I would be. The ideas we’re talking about could really happen. We have the opportunity to reach people who can make it happen.”

Cheana Horua-Heather of Aranui High School says she wants the rebuild to be inclusive of everyone. “I wanted to put my vision out there to see if it gets accepted.”

Ideas for the Central Business District, renamed the Central Human District, included: providing spaces for young people; free outdoor entertainment; redesigning gardens for people; growing bike lanes and shrinking roads; and ensuring wheelchair access. For the wider city consideration was given to bursting Christchurch’s suburban bubbles to build a more cohesive city and discussing the suitability of temporary housing and asking what will happen to them?

Next Saturday, the 28th of May the White Elephant Trust will hold four simultaneous youth forums across the city and a UNESCO sponsored event will act as a central hub. 30 young representatives are being selected to process further ideas and visions in the morning and prepare for a ‘dragons den’ style presentation to key politicians and policy makers followed by a roundtable negotiation

Louis Brown invites others to contribute to the project. Ideas and comments can be left on the One Christchurch Facebook page by searching One Christchurch in the Facebook search bar or by emailing info@onechristchurch.org.nz. In addition, last minute nominations for the UNSECO event can be left at this address before Wednesday 25th May.

The organisers would like to thank the following organisations who partnered to make the event happen: Premier partner University of Canterbury and Gold Partners Student Volunteer Army, CPIT (Christchurch Polytechnic of Technology) as well as support from Ministry of Youth Development and the Christchurch City Council.

ENDS

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