Youthtown

Youthtown’s mission is to address root causes of “disengagement” and equip young people to successfully navigate their transitions from childhood to adulthood. Youthtown’s programmes use strength-based approaches premised on the idea that young people are not disengaged; they are simply responding to systemic inequalities and lack of support. This means growing skills in several areas while fostering a curiosity about the future. Youthtown has 90 years of experience working with young people and are CCRE’s largest partnership. In our work together we are seeking to strengthen Youthtown’s evidence base to highlight the success factors in their transformative work with young people while expanding research-informed programmes.

In 2020, CCRE and Youthtown entered a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) seeking to develop capability in using youth-centric data across a range of programmes delivered by Youthtown nationally. Youthtown participated in a series of five CCRE workshops and associated mentoring aimed at strengthening the research-mindedness of staff, including ethically collecting and storing data, organizing it for analysis, as well as determining the use of evaluation data and dissemination of findings. CCRE supported Youthtown at a community research symposium to present data from trialling a journey mapping evaluation tool on ways in which youth have changed through their participation on Youth Councils.

The relationship grew further through the co-design of a structure and curriculum for a Youthtown programme called GROW. Drawing on scholarly evidence about youth in care, alternative education or those facing life challenges that significantly impact on their ability to engage and succeed, GROW was piloted with youth in a low socio-economic area of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. These youth experienced significant educational and other inequities, and traditional education pathways were not responsive to their needs. GROW was designed using mātauranga Māori (i.e., bodies of indigenous Māori knowledge reflecting Māori worldviews and ways of being) around the concept of ‘Nga Uri Ō’ and incorporated creative youth development activities including play, arts and sports. Nga Uri Ō encourages connection to ancestors and land with an emphasis on expanding one’s understanding of place in the world relative to others through three interlinked ideas: ko wai au (who am I?); ko wai koe (who are you?) and ko wai tātou (who are we?). For youth to have successful life outcomes and be resilient, it is essential they have supportive relationships with important people in their lives. GROW ensures youth benefit from intentionally building these structured relationships.

From early 2022 to present, the RPP has supported seven pilot deliveries of GROW; collaboratively revising the programme after each delivery. Youth-centric evaluation data supported improved programme delivery and responsiveness to growing youth mental health concerns. It is a goal of the existing partnership to scale the delivery of GROW and other programmes that support youth transition out of school, from regions across Auckland to reach youth nationally at different Youthtown sites.