Community Feed

Youth runner raises $1200

Round the Bays is one of the world’s largest fun runs and among the 30,000+ runners was awesome Youth MP Thomas Swinburn, who ran to fundraise for Youthline.
The seventeen-year-old raised a massive $1200 to help support young people across NZ, a demographic he is currently preparing to represent.
Thomas is the Maungakiekie Youth MP for Youth Parliament 2016. He was especially thrilled to run alongside his mentor: the Associate Health MP Sam Lotu-Iiga.
When asked why he was running for Youthline, he said, “I wanted to support and help young people with mental health concerns. I wanted to show solidarity with young people coming up against these sorts of problems.
“One of the reasons I chose Youthline was because I wanted to support a local community organisation that have young people at the centre of it all.
“I really enjoyed supporting an awesome cause that makes a difference in the lives of countless young people.”
Thomas has been involved in other local community activities, such as encouraging young people to enrol to vote and helping at a visually-impaired community event.
He’s excited about helping Youthline:
“I’m inspired by the work of Youthline Auckland and wanted to support them by raising money as part of my participation in Ports of Auckland: Round the Bays 2016.”

#Sport#Events#Volunteering

Swimming for a cause

Abby Armstrong of Hamilton is preparing to take part in a 22.35 inaugral swim event on the open sea between Upolu and Savai’i in Samoa--the longest open sea race in the Southern Hemisphere.
The 29-year-old swim coach is racing to raise funds and awareness for Youthline.
Her six-day-a-week training routine includes an open water swim and swimming sessions at her local pool.
“I’m training hard to attempt a world first swimming race. There are a couple of reasons why I am determined to complete this challenge. One is that it is a personal goal and the other is to raise awareness for mental health, specifically young girls.
“Not many people are aware that I was a sufferer of mental illness for many years and exercise, particularly swimming, helped me beat my issues. This Samoa swim is the start of a career to inspire and help young people cope with mental illness through exercise and nutrition. The money I raise will be donated to Youthline.”
“I used to swim competitively when I was younger but once I finished school I stopped swimming and went into a bit of a hole with depression post school,” she says. Then she began to swim again...and loves it.

She competed in the NZ Ocean Swim Series and discovered how much she loves training. This inspired her to her compete in the Taupo 10K Swim – she came in first place, which included a $500 prize.
“The money I raise through this swim, beyond the entry fee and expenses will all go to Youthline. Youthline is a youth development organization offering counselling services, information and development programmes to benefit and aid those in need, ultimately I am hoping to work with them in the near future.

“The main reason is to gain the knowledge and experience needed to inspire and enable athletes, especially children, to be the best that they can be,” she says.
“I am currently working with two top swimming clubs within my region, including some of New Zealand’s best up-and-coming swimmers, to develop dry-landtttttt strength training and injury prevention. I get great satisfaction in coaching individual athletes/swimmers that give everything they do 100%, whether it be competing in a Triathlon or in a 200 m swimming race for the first time.
“My motto is, ‘everything is life is achievable if you’re prepared to put in the hard work.’ I’m just an ordinary kiwi girl that works incredibly hard to be the best that I can be in all areas of life. I want to inspire people and prove that anything is possible with the right attitude and a little determination.”
To donate go here: http://givealittle.co.nz/cause/theaverageswimmer

#Fun stuff#Events#Volunteering

Sovereign Innovation Project at Youthline Manukau

For two days in mid-March, our community at Youthline Manukau teamed up with Lifehack and Sovereign to dream about what could be possible for the centre.
We were also joined by the League of Live Illustrators, a Wellington-based team who describe themselves as “graphic facilitators.” As we brainstormed the future of Youthline Manukau, these artists and illustrators visually documented the content and ideas.
Our super group focused on three critical areas for growth: creating a buzz at the centre, volunteer retention, and pathways to volunteering.
Over the next six months, we will be proactively using what we learned over those days to reach the goal of building a volunteer base of fifty active hub volunteers...or more!

Centre manager Mark Esekielu reported that it was fantastic to have Lifehack, Sovereign, volunteers and so many participants from our community involved. We wish to say a special thank you to everyone who participated and “stoked the fire.”

On the second day of the workshop, the team was already putting their ideas into action, which was satisfying for all involved.
Mark hopes to maintain and continue to nurture the buzz created during the two-day session.
“I’m really excited to see the project come together,” he says.

#General #Events#Volunteering

Youthline Wellington update:

Youthline Wellington has had eight of their members complete the National Certificate in Youth Work level 3 through their partnership with Careerforce, this is the first time Youthline Welington has been able to offer this qualification and they say they are super proud of it.
The eight members of our group are Jayden Ho, Samantha Wedd, Dylan Singh, Helen Davies, Daikyn Nuku, Stephanie Harris,
Maggie Shippam, and Sarah Miller.
Youthline Wellington will also be working with Gateway students who are interested in Social Work, Counselling, Youth Work – or any other career in the social services sector requiring interpersonal skills in a 5 month programme called Youth Delvelopment Programme 2016. The programme aims to develop: self awareness, self management, communication skill and relationship skills. Participants will be able to gain 13 credits toward National Certificate in Youth Work level 3.

#General #Volunteering #Education

Volunteer of the Year 2015

In December, Youthline Auckland
announced Kerry Spray as the Youthline Auckland Volunteer of the Year for 2015. Kerry also won a local Community Hero award at the Kiwi Bank New Zealand Local Hero of the Year Awards at the end of last year. Kerry is a dedicated volunteer on our National Helpline, based out of Central Auckland and has been a volunteer since 2013.
All solo counsellors are requested to do at least one 9pm to midnight shift per year. Of the 79 helpline shifts Kerry has completed this year, 18 of them have been at this later time, amassing 48.5 hours of his total 235.5 hours.
Since qualifying as a mentoring counsellor in March 2015, Kerry has provided over 160 hours of mentoring to helpline trainees and has gained notoriety amongst group trainees and facilitators for his flexibility and availability to provide so many mentoring opportunities.
He is also a Facilitator, Accredited Hub Mentor, and has recently joined the Triage team. He’s also completed Advanced Personal Development and Group Dynamics courses at Youthline.

#Events#Volunteering

Staff member lands Scholarship

Long-time Youthline Auckland staff member Stevie Sikuea, 21, has just landed an AUT Scholarship to study for a Masters in Human Rights in 2016.
The 21-year-old has a lot of accolades to her name, including organisational and admin wiz, which led to a part-time role working for Action Education. Stevie also recently completed her co-op education term as Youth Development and Projects intern at Youthline.
Stevie has just completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at AUT studying a double major in Maori Development and Social Sciences. At her recent graduation Stevie received the Dean’s Award and a Maori student achievement award.
It was one of her lecturer’s who suggested she look into the scholarship. Stevie says she’d like to focus her studies on young peoples’ right to an education.
Stevie joined Youthline’s Waitemata District Health Board Youth Advisory Group when she was 14. Stevie’s personal experience of positive youth development, and her outstanding leadership skill led to her paid co-op term at Youthline where she spent six months supporting the redevelopment of Youthline’s National Youth Advisory Group now named National Youth Collective.
Stevie says she is stoked to have got the scholarship and is looking forward to studying Human Rights.

Volunteer Profile: Gary Grooms

Gary Grooms, 33, has been volunteering for Youthline Central South Island (CSI) as a volunteer Helpline counsellor since August 2014 after a university friend recommended Youthline to him.
“I have been a Helpline Volunteer for the past 18 months and a Helpline mentor for the past 12 months. I joined Youthline CSI Trust board in June 2015. I am currently in an interim role as Assistant Centre Coordinator at YL CSI and coordinating and facilitating training for 2016.”
“The highlight would have to be meeting Youthliners from all over Aotearoa. Being around people with a passion in supporting and empowering young people is inspiring and provides great opportunities to expand my own knowledge and skills.”

#Volunteering

Youth scoops up AUT Scholarship

Youthline National Youth Collective (NYC) member Kinanti Desyanandini, 18, has been awarded the AUT Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship for 2016. She will be studying a Bachelor of Design at AUT starting in February.
“The scholarship is for my tuition at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), and it pays for $6000 a year for 3 years, totalling at $18,000, as I will be studying a Bachelor of Design (BDes) majoring in Product Design at AUT. I got it from a nomination from my school, as my secondary school (Auckland Girls’ Grammar School) is one of AUT’s partners for secondary schools in Auckland.”
She will have access to a student advisor for mentoring in her first year at university.
“I can’t believe that I got this scholarship - I’m very grateful and feel quite blessed and lucky.”
“My advice for other people trying to apply for scholarships would be to just give every opportunity a shot; some scholarships may have a low amount of competition and also don’t be afraid to show your skills, capability, and academic achievements - it’s not bragging, the scholarship board won’t know how awesome you are if you don’t tell them, ”she says.
Youthline was proud to support
Kinanti’s application for this scholarship. Kinanti is a highly active Youthline volunteer. She recently produced a publication for Youthline called Holiday 101: your guide to living #holidaylife to the fullest. The guide offered young people advice about communicating, feelings, dealing with relationships, dealing with family, dealing with relationships and self-care. You can check it out here: http://bit.ly/1JJC7qN

#General #Volunteering #Education

Evaluating new frontiers in service delivery

Youthline Youth Development Researcher David Anstiss took some time out of his schedule to give us an update on the latest research he has been working on.

Anxiety and mood disorders are the two most common disorder groups suffered by young people in New Zealand. Counselling via digital media appears promising in reducing symptomology, though few studies have evaluated digital counselling media against a face-to-face counselling benchmark.

Youthline have recently produced a paper which compares the efficacy of a self-directed, standardised text-message-based intervention, against equivalent youth client data from an established face-to-face counselling service. Data from the pilot of Youthline’s GoMobile text package was compared to youth client data from Youthline’s face-to-face counselling service.

GoMobile participants’ post-intervention scores were significantly lower than their pre-intervention scores for both anxiety and depression. Youth counselling clients’ post-intervention scores were also significantly lower than their pre-intervention scores for both anxiety and depression. The reduction in pre and post-intervention anxiety scores and depression scores were not significantly different between the two interventions. In short, young clients’ symptomology was significantly reduced regardless of whether they received face-to-face counselling or the GoMobile text package.

Findings suggest that providing digital counselling media could open up possibilities for young people to choose counselling avenues they prefer and which offer flexibility, control, and autonomy. Such avenues have the potential to support young people to a similar extent as more traditional face-to-face alternatives.

GoMobile is free and available across New Zealand. Sign up for the next programme today.

#General #Education

Young leader making waves at Youthline

2016 is set to be an amazing year for Bridget McNamara who is one of nine New Zealand participants as part of the Global Leaders Development Program (formally named Ship for World Youth).
The last 18 months have been a whirlwind journey for Bridget (Biddy) who became a Helpline volunteer, a Youth Development Worker, and a registered psychologist.
Biddy will be living on a ship with 200 young leaders from all over the world. The program is a unique experience for young people to engage with a diverse group of like-minded individuals from Japan, and invited delegations from Bahrain, Brazil, India, Kenya, Oman, Peru, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the United Kingdom and of course New Zealand.
It’s a unique international youth exchange programme funded by the Government of Japan for people aged 18-30.
Participants have the chance to get involved in a range of on-board activities including seminars, sports, cultural activities and workshops.
The program includes 24 days in Japan where New Zealand participants will join 110 Japanese youth and 90 delegates from the 9 invited countries. For 12 days aboard the ship they will live and work together and make visits to the Japanese ports of Naha and Ofunato.
This is an amazing opportunity for Biddy and she will follow in the footsteps of other Youthline Youth Development Workers Ramon Narayan and Julian Barnett who have both taken this Youthline-sponsored opportunity in the past.
McNamara began her journey with Youthline when she signed up to start her training as a Helpline counsellor.
“I was studying psychology which was really impractical, so I really just wanted to get some more practical experience and had heard some really amazing things about the Youthline volunteer training, so I signed myself up.”
While going through the Helpline training, an opportunity came up at Youthline Auckland Central for a Youth Development Worker position. McNamara leapt at the opportunity to become involved with Youthline in another way.
At just 24, McNamara is making positive waves in her community and is an important member of the Youthline team.
She became a solo counsellor on the Youthline Helpline in August.
In addition to her role as a volunteer on the Helpline, and her work as a Youth Development Worker at Youthline, McNamara also recently completed her Master’s Degree, an investigation into the challenges and achievements of young working class men navigating high school. She also recently ran the Auckland Half Marathon, raising money for Youthline while squeezing in training runs.
She highly
recommends the Youthline volunteer pathway to others, calling it “an awesome opportunity to meet other people and develop.”

#Fun stuff#General #Events#Volunteering

Upcoming events

REV the cycle race
Youthline will be putting a team together for this year's REV CYCLE RACE happening Sunday 20 February in Cambridge so if you would like to join our team and set up a fundraising page to help us raise valuable funds we would LOVE to have you on board!
Ports of Auckland Round The Bays
Youthline will be putting a team together for this year's Round the Bays happening Sunday 6 March so if you would like to join our team and set up a fundraising page to help us raise valuable funds we would LOVE to have you on board!
If you would like to know more about volunteering at our upcoming events email events@youthline.co.nz to go onto our mailing list.

Volunteer of the Year 2015

In December, Youthline announced Kerry Spray as the Youthline Volunteer of the Year for 2015.
Kerry also won a local Community Hero award at the Kiwi Bank New Zealand Local Hero of the Year Awards at the end of last year. Kerry is a dedicated volunteer on our National Helpline, based out of Central Auckland and has been a volunteer since 2013.

All solo counsellors are requested to do at least one 9pm to midnight shift per year. Of the 79 helpline shifts Kerry has completed this year, 18 of them have been at this later time, amassing 48.5 hours of his total 235.5 hours.

Since qualifying as a mentoring counsellor in March 2015, Kerry has provided over 160 hours of mentoring to helpline trainees and has gained notoriety amongst group trainees and facilitators for his flexibility and availability to provide so many mentoring opportunities.
He is also a Facilitator, Accredited Hub Mentor, and has recently joined the Triage team. He’s also completed Advanced Personal Development and Group Dynamics courses at Youthline.

#Volunteering

Text research to be published in 2016

The GoMobile text package pilot study will be published in the Children and Youth Services Review early next year.

The pilot concluded late last year with some smashing results.

GoMobile: a text based 10 week program aimed at young people suffering from mild to moderate anxiety and or depression is now fully integrated into Youthline service delivery.

Counsellor Amber Davies says the concept behind the text package came from a realisation that Youthline needed to extend the choices it offered young people for early intervention.

“It’s a combination of therapeutic intervention but much less intensive than having to come into counselling.”

GoMobile is all about choice, flexibility and confidentiality.
“We are so excited about this and all the work we put into it having made a real difference for the young people involved.”
Learn more at http://www.youthline.co.nz/services/goforward/gomobile/

#General #Education

Volunteering: Melanie Potter

Community minded Melanie Potter on what motivates her to serve
Melanie Potter says she is grateful to be a member of the Youthline Auckland Charitable Trust Board, and to be involved in the strategic direction of an organisation like Youthline.
Melanie was born and raised in Rotorua and joined Simpson Grierson as a lawyer in 2014.
Simpson Grierson has been a long-time sponsor of Youthline and this relationship has led to Simpson Grierson providing a youth Trustee to sit on the Youthline Board.
“It has been great to be introduced to all the different things Youthline does and the various goals of the organisation.”
From a young age, she was taught about the importance of serving the community; which aligns well with Youthline’s vision and values.
She has always seen her life broken into quarters: study (and now work), friends and family, hobbies and service. She says doing a variety of volunteer work has often led to personal development by reflecting on her own life and goals.
Melanie has also gained a lot from taking up leadership roles. She says leadership is important for the personal and professional development of young people because it makes you reflect on what excites and motivates you, and what your professional and interpersonal skills are.
Her advice to young people taking up leadership roles is to take the time to work out what you’re passionate about.

#Volunteering

Jasmin's Youthline story

Youthline Alternative Education student to Receptionist to Youth Worker - Jasmin Albert is one success story that’s going full circle.
“Mum dragged me along to counselling at Youthline, and at that age [13] I wasn’t interested at all, but looking back now I can see how beneficial it actually was.”
The eldest of six, Jasmin was attending Auckland Girls Grammar School (AGGS) where she was stood down for truancy and was sent to the Auckland Secondary Schools Centre.
She stayed there for two terms and then went back to AGGS, but within two days was stood down again with teachers saying she ‘had a problem with authority.’
From there she was referred to Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour Services who then put her onto Youthline’s Alternative Education Programme.
“I enjoyed Alternative Education a whole lot more than school - it was more specialised around what I was interested in and because the class sizes were so small, the learning environment was a much better fit for me.”
After being integrated back into mainstream school, Jasmin made the decision to leave when she turned 16 and was then offered a full time job as Youthline’s Receptionist.
“It’s scary how long I have been involved with Youthline - but I look at them as my other family, the environment is what attracts me here,” she says.
Jasmin left her position at Youthline study a Bachelor of Social Practice at Unitec.
Today, Jasmin is a Full Time Youth Worker at Youthline Auckland Central

#Volunteering #Education