Kia ora,

My name is Kaitlyn, and I am fortunate enough to be co-chairperson of the Christchurch Youth Council, who advocate for young people to have their voices heard and a seat at every decision making table. We are currently organising Youth Focus: Local Election Q+A events for Monday (West event) and Tuesday (East + Mayoral event), as young people aren't taught much in schools about what local councils actually do, and why knowing and voting for a local representative is crucial to our city's success.

I think you and your readers would be interested in this as a positive youth story that helps to create a culture of youth participating in civics and decision making, and shatters the illusion that young people are apathetic. This also will give coverage as to how candidates feel on youth issues, particularly as we ran a survey and found the top five issues faced by young people, with the top one being mental health. We are particularly looking forward to our mayoral debate between John Minto and Lianne Dalziel.

Facebook event for the West event: https://www.facebook.com/events/812697998867292/

Facebook event for East + Mayoral event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1065888786813209/

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