face2face gets started!

The Youth Councillors have filed reports from the first round of Face2Face events. We decided to start small and see where these events could take us, and also to allow the Youth Councillors a chance to get started in their respective favourite hangouts. Whilst discussion began around the idea of obstacles and opportunities for youth in the Chch rebuild, it was clear that heaps of other amazing thoughts needed to be talked through. Here's a little more on the first event at Rock Salt from CYC member Michael:

Christchurch Youth Council launched its new series of events, F2F, on 30 September 2014 at Rocksalt Cafe, Strowan. Michael and Wil were the two CYC representatives at the event. With a small but passionate group, Michael and Wil were able to gather opinions on the progress of the Christchurch rebuilt, where they attendees would like to see Christchurch in the future and what they enjoy and dislike about the city. Feedback was also gather from past CYC events, where some comments were that they thought WESPEAK was a fantastic event that was eye opening and inspiring them to get out into the community to play a role in active citizenship. The BROODS U18 concert also came up in conversation and that they thought events along that line is a fantastic opportunity for young people to be able to go to age-appropriate events. There was an enormous amount of constructive feedback from the organisers which  Kaitlyn and Alice could take onboard before the second F2F event. The progress on how our small F2F events are going, is an uphill trend. Christchurch Youth Council are very happy with to be able to go out into the community to gather opinions from young people and connect on a more casual level than previous events.

CYC members Alice and Kaitlyn take up the story with their own event at Beat Street Cafe:

The second F2F held at Beat Street cafe went very well, with those in attendance having lots of input on a multitude of youth-related topics. Firstly, we asked what the main boundaries for youth disengagement, and received some great feedback on this. We hope to use this feedback and work out how w CYC could create more opportunities for youth in Christchurch through youth-friendly places and opportunities for growth. We then discussed how the rebuild has actually made Christchurch more youth-focused, through the new plans for the city, but discussed that it is hard to have voices of all youth heard as some find it hard to speak up. A huge amount of discussion took place on all these topics, and we can't wait to get stuck into all of the cool ideas and new initiatives that have been suggested.

Now that we've had a chance to dip our toes in, we're going all out for the next event. Watch this space!