Find out what we’ve all been talking about. Our latest news, events and blog involving young people.
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We were saddened to hear this week that one of the key people who helped establish Youth Horizons, Les Simmonds, passed away last week (27 Nov) at the age of 68. Les made a large contribution to New Zealand through his family therapy work and management roles in the social sector. He will be deeply missed by his family, colleagues, and friends.
To celebrate a year of hard work, our offices got to choose how they wanted to spend an afternoon together.
We were pleased to welcome the Minister for Children, Hon Tracey Martin, to our National Office in Mt Wellington.
Youth Service West supports young people aged 16-24 around the Waitakere Ranges. We can help them to get their learners’ licence, employment support and familiarisation with their local community.
Did you catch us at Waitangi@Waititi? Our West Auckland service – Youth Service West – held an information stall at the packed out event at Hoani Waititi Marae hosted by the wonderful team at Te Whanau O Waipereira, showing our support to our local communities. We love meeting, sharing and connecting with whānau in and around West Auckland! And what better way to do that then here in this awesome community event!
His behaviours at school reflected serious problems at home, including violence, abuse and long-term reliance on benefits.
Ritchie* has had a troubled childhood, frequented by bouts of family violence, neglect and drug and alcohol abuse.
It was an amazing event – with rousing speeches, laughter, song, prayer and of course kai. So much food.
Yasmine Sina didn't ever think she would be a role model for other young mums.
Our Youth Service West team have recently partnered with local provider Ranui 135 and the Blue Light Ranui Social Sector Trial to pilot a new youth employment project.
Taking the lead from Youth Week’s 2015 theme “We Are The Future” the West Auckland Time Capsule project provides an opportunity to capture, record, safeguard and share the dreams and hopes of today’s youth with the rest of their community, with the intention that they will be opened and shared in 15 years.
Retirement has turned out to be anything but quiet for Ron and Chris.
The new group home in Napier officially opens on 1 December and will house up to five boys aged between 13-16. While in the home, the young people will learn positive life skills in a therapeutic environment while also attending school, sports and other activities.
In September the inaugural Noho Marae for all Teaching Family Model staff in Aotearoa was held at Maketu Marae.
Dr Pusha Wood from the Financial Education and Research Centre (Fin- Ed) Massey University, presented MoneySmarts’ graduation certificates to Youth Service West staff on Friday 25 July 2014.
Desiree Leauga (DJ) left high school at the age of 16 years, not because she didn’t think schooling was valuable, but simply because traditional schooling wasn’t an enjoyable learning experience for her personally. “I was only attending music at High School because I wasn’t enjoying the rest of it. So I left and dropped out. My passion was music but I couldn’t even get into the music course I liked because I had no qualifications and I needed my NCEA level 2” says DJ.
Youth Horizons CEO Cath Handley was honoured to share her inspiring leadership journey with students at Zayed College for Girls yesterday as a member of the 2014 Sir Peter Blake Trust Dream Team.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett today announced the locations of eight new Children’s Teams that are rolling out over the next year to help transform New Zealand’s child protection system.
Our very own Michelle Haami (from our BreakThru service, West Auckland) is attending the annual Aspiring Leaders Forum at Parliament this week, she was selected to attend after being nominated by someone who knew about her amazing work in the community with at risk young people.
Ngapuhi Iwi Social Services linked up with the Kaikohe community on Tuesday 8th April through local band, The Funky North.
Our Southern Functional Family Team had a fantastic time at their Noho Marae at the spectacular Te Rau Aroha Marae at Bluff, designed by Cliff Whiting.
The Fin-Ed Centre, a joint venture between Massey University and Westpac, is working with Auckland youth organisations to teach financial literacy to teenaged beneficiaries.
Youth Horizons Pasifika fono attended this conference last week. Also at the conference were representatives from Faiva Ora leadership group and Pacific Youth with disability, Rainbow Pasifika, and Tongan Suicide Prevention to name just a few!
This year to celebrate Children's Day, Barnardos have produced a fun song, and we think its fantastic!
KIDshine are launching a new, powerful, 4-minute video on Children's Day, this Sunday, March 2nd, and we hope you will watch and share it with others who care about the children of New Zealand.
The video features New Zealand's first Commissioner for Children, Dr. Ian Hassall, who helped to establish our KIDshine service ten years ago. It also features Shine's Client Services Director, Jill Proudfoot, and two mothers whose children were clients of KIDshine.
Please take 4 minutes to watch this video, which will help viewers to have a better understanding of how children are affected by domestic abuse and how KIDshine is making a difference.
There is no violence depicted in the video, but some viewers may find the content disturbing.
Click here to view our Summarised Annual Report Infographic for the year ended June 2013, or if you prefer click here for the full version.
The skies cleared just in time for Youth Service West to launch their new wrapped van with the help of Minister Paula Bennett.
Our very own Michelle Haami attended this years Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards, Michelle was one of the backing vocalists for performer Ruby Frost, and her band Edge Kingsland was nominated for an award!
On October 24th, Youth Horizons decided to go PINK for the day to show our support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The crew from Youth Service West were at Avondale College on Thursday with a free sausage sizzle and other giveaways for 16-17 year olds signing up to the service.
We are proud to have recently launched Te Kōhao o Te Ngira - Through the Eye of the Needle an in-house booklet created and developed to enrich our staff with the knowledge and understanding of our own organisational whakapapa, this booklet is a testament to the strength of our commitment to building and evolving a bicultural kaupapa at Youth Horizons/Kia Puawai. Each of our staff received a copy of the booklet which was designed by the generous donated time of Paul and Paola Dashwood.
Young parents at Te Kāinga Fatimah and Sophie, are part of this great new intiative between Hand Over a Hundy and Youth Horizons aiming to teach young parents the value of gardening, cooking, preserving and even selling the fruits of their gardening labour all with the intention to pass on the knowledge to another family to do the same!
Youth Horizons are proud to announce that we have met the Tertiary level requirements for ACC Workplace Safety Management Practices.
The Social Sector Trials, a joint initiative of the Ministries of Social Development, Health, Education, Justice and the New Zealand Police have been established to improve social sector efficiencies and shift decision making for funding services away from the government to be managed at one single point in the community.
The Parliamentary Social Services Select Committee were invited along to Youth Horizons.
After nine years Youth Horizons has launched its new brand. Youth Horizons services from around the country joined together to celebrate our new look and identity. Auckland guest speaker, Warriors fullback Kevin Locke, presented a touching speech about overcoming his own challenges as a youth to acheive in his sport.
