Youth who are empowered to make a change will stay in Christchurch

The Christchurch earthquakes have left youth of the city’s disheartened and disenchanted. The way to get them behind the cities rebuild is to empower them to make change. WE Speak 2012 will do just that through workshops and interactions with decision makers such as Roger Sutton, Bob Parker, Gareth Hughes and Megan Woods.

On Friday the 25th of May from 9am WE Speak 2012 will be held at Te Puna Wanaka in CPIT. WE Speak is one of New Zealand’s largest youth conferences and has been successful in raising awareness and making changes that affect youth since its creation in 2007. The Conference is run by the Otautahi Youth Council (OYC) and the White Elephant Trust- it is an event run by young people, for young people! The OYC is a group of active youth who want to give the youth of Christchurch a voice. Their goal is to create a conversation between the youth of Christchurch and those that make the decisions. This means that we ensure the youth of Christchurch know when important decisions are about to be made and make sure that our opinions are heard. The 2012 conference will focus on youth empowerment; giving the youth of Christchurch the tools to bring about real change.

The workshops throughout the day will include: How to organise events; Having a youth voice in politics; Youth rights and the law; how to get funding; how to write a submission and how to make a Gapfiller. Throughout the day youth will get to network and be inspired by speeches by Jason Pemberton of the Student Volunteer Army and Roger Sutton of CERA. Moreover, Bob Parker, Gareth Hughes and Megan Woods have indicated that they will attend the event.

The way to reengage youth in the rebuild is to enable them to make change. WE Speak 2012 empowers them to do so. For more details contact Cameron@oyc.co.nz, go to oyc.co.nz/wespeak2012/ or search WE Speak 2012 in Facebook.

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