Happy 15th Birthday Howick Youth Council

On Saturday evening I attended celebrations marking the 15th Anniversary of the Howick Youth Council, along with Chair Bruce Kendall, Deputy Kai Zeng, Members Jack Collins, Luke Collings, Krish Naidu, and Mike Turinsky, and Councillor Bo Burns.

One of the early initiatives of the Howick Local Board, the Howick Youth Council (HYC) continues to provide local rangatahi (youth) an opportunity to represent and empower local youth. With a third of our local population (170k residents) under the age of 25, HYC is a vital part of ensuring that rangatahi have a voice, are valued, and can contribute.

Made up of 32 volunteers from our 9 local colleges plus open seats (enabling tertiary students to be involved), HYC is empowered to develop their own programme of activities and events across the year, with funding from the Howick Local Board. Recent examples include events tackling mental health, financial literacy, and youth employment as well as environmental action, social activities, and fun.

Members of the HYC have gone onto leadership positions within business, education, media, and more. Recently elected HLB member Jack Collins spoke about his time on HYC (including Chair in 2019 Chair& Deputy Chair in 2020) and the skills and confidence it provided him on his pathway to community leadership.

Year after year, I am inspired by the leadership qualities displayed by members of the Howick Youth Council and extremely proud to be able to play a small part in supporting their endeavours.

Check out this video which explains what HYC is and does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otm7No19tnc