Te Hōnonga a Iwi is looking for about 20 new youth leaders to bring their creativity, enthusiasm and new ideas to our restoration project at Rosedale Park.
Project co-ordinator Nicky Shave says more young people are needed to act as pest plant managers, chicken carers, bird count leaders, bat echolocation assessors, and plant growth and survival assessors. There are also vacancies for youth strategy leaders, rangatahi leaders and business activator leaders.
This would double the number of youth leaders supporting the project.
Nicky says young people play a crucial role in the success of the restoration.
“Young people are courageous. They are a part of the generation who will be most impacted by climate change, across their lives, and their children's lives. They are taking active ownership and responsibility for decarbonising and increasing social equity and environmental justice.
“They foster creativity, innovation, and develop sophisticated ideas to make iterative improvements to our model, processes and outputs.”
Getting involved with the project is a great way for students and young people to develop new skills and knowledge that will boost their CVs and provide future employment opportunities and connect with experts and professionals working on the restoration.
They will develop leadership and strategic skills and will be investing in making a positive impact on climate change. It’s also an opportunity to connect with nature, improve their mental and physical wellbeing and be part of an award-winning restoration project.
Te Hōnonga a Iwi youth leaders need to have strong communication and organisation skills, an ability to work independently, reliability, and an interest in either increasing the wellbeing of the environment, mitigating climate change, increasing social equity and cohesion or building commercial resilience to climate change and decarbonising.
“We teach all the other skills needed to perform the role and offer one-on-one mentorship,” Nicky says.
Through the youth leader programme and school involvement in restoration working bees and education days, more than 2000 young people have invested time in the project since it began in 2022.
Working in partnership with young people, including people from diverse cultural heritage, LGBTQIA+ youth and youth managing different abilities and neurodiversity, enables the restoration to be informed by the people who are the most closely aligned with future generations, Nicky says.
“Our outcomes have been possible to achieve only because of local youth investment. We are indebted to all our youth volunteers, especially our youth leaders, and we highly value their important place within the project.”
If you would like to be a youth leader at Te Hōnonga a Iwi, email hello@restoringrosedalepark.org.nz
Comments