NZAAHD 3rd International Conference
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NZAAHD - New Zealand Association of Adolescent Health and Development. In June two van-loads of young people from Nelson went to the 3rd Pacific Rim Conference of the International Association of Adolescent Health and Development, at Lincoln University. For lots of us, it was our first time on a big university campus, and it was really cool. Some of the speakers told us about different websites that are designed for or by young people, like
The theme was building resilience (the ability to "bounce back" or survive a challenging time) in youth.
Penny Eames from Arts Access Aotearoa talked about how each culture had its rituals and heritage, and were allowed to express this and so youth should be allowed to express their art. AAA promotes and organises gigs like tagging festivals where youth can go and just tagg and show off their taggings and art on huge walls and stuff.
My favourite workshop was run by Peer Support/One Stop Shop from Wellington - the base for all one-stop shops in NZ - there≠s heaps all around NZ but not in Nelson. Youth can go there and chill out after school, and talk to peer supporters or health nurses who offer advice and listen to problems.
The conference showed the importance of your heritage in building resiliency in yourself, and of relationships between young & old people.
There was a definite message from people working with youth health, that our opinions are important to them, and overall it was agreed that 'youth are a resource to be cherished and developed, not a problem to be solved.'
Renee R, July 2000