Blossoming of Our Children

Care to Independence Youth Council, Dingwall Trust, Youth Horizons, Launch and Ka Awatea

The Care to independence youth Council, with support by dingwall Trust, youth Horizons, launch and Ka Awatea, supports four young people presenting a keynote address that will symbolise "the voice of the nation that cannot be heard" of young people in care.

The Care to independence youth Council will present a powerful representation of young people's experiences and voices on the care journey and a poignant reminder of what is needed to maximise their potential. A positive link will be made to the knowledge theme of Blossoming of Our Children.

Following a Ministerial Review of the department of Child, youth and Family services and other independent research it was established that there existed a real gap in provision for young people leaving care in New Zealand. As a result the government gave Child, youth and Family funding in 2003 to develop a service to support young people leaving care who cannot return to family or remain with caregivers.

The Transition from Care to independence initiative is a four-year Auckland-wide pilot contracted by Child, youth and Family and undertaken by two community agencies - dingwall Trust's launch project and youth Horizon's Ka Awatea project. The initiative is aimed at assisting young people who have been in state care to make a supported and successful transition from care to independent living in the community.

Ka Awatea works with Māori rangatahi and young people with severe behavioural or complex needs. launch works with all other eligible young people.

The service provides a leaving care team with four Personal Advisors from each organisation and a range of transition and after care services. youth participation is an important element. it was decided in order to provide a forum for youth to share their voice that we would develop a youth Council.

The youth Council is run collaboratively by both dingwall Trust and youth Horizons and came into force in September 2004. since this time it has grown and developed to the stage where the young people are actively taking part in discussions, where they feel empowered to make changes in a system that they have been part of. The youth Council meets monthly and follows an agenda and structure that enable them to be part of the whole process from facilitation to evaluation.