A key aspect of the Youth Development Strategy is that all young people have opportunities to actively engage in their community.

For more than three decades Youthline has been involved in schools adding to the Health Curriculum through the facilitation of health promoting interactive seminars. Additionally, Youthline provides seminars linking young people with the tools to access information, such as the Urge/Whakamanawa website, www.urge.co.nz or www.whakamanawa.co.nz

Youthline seminars encourage young people to participate, while giving them well researched and relevant information. Young people have many issues which they feel passionate about. These seminars entitled “Youthline Talk” provide a safe and effective way to 'open up' discussion and explore issues. They are organised into four categories, Body talk, Tough Talk, ID Talk and Youthline Talk.

The objectives of the seminars are:

To equip young people with the skills, resources and initiative required to access information and to ask for help,
To provide an opportunity for exploration and discussion of the issues affecting young people today.
To generate interest and awareness about the Urge/Whakamanawa website and to share basic information about these resources.
To provide information about Youthline’s range of services and the opportunities to volunteer and be involved.
To acknowledge and overcome obstacles which may prevent young people from accessing information and asking for help.
Encourage more young people to take an active leadership role within our community.
Enable respect and understanding between people.
Create a forum for peer learning, support and problem-solving.

At the end of the seminar(s) young people will:

Be more willing to ask for help,
Be aware of their own obstacles to asking for help and feel more confident and more able to take control of their problems.
Know where to go to get help, and how to go about it.
Be aware of opportunities to develop leadership skills.

How are the seminars run:

School seminars are run by experienced youth workers and trained Youthline volunteers, many of whom are young people.
Each seminar takes 1 hour.
They employ both interactive and didactic teaching methods, depending on the topic and the group.
Seminars are structured to be run in a class size group; however some can be run in school assemblies.
Schools can choose to have all four aspects of a topic covered or pick the one which is most appropriate.
Youthline can provide tailored seminars to work with specific issues in the school or community.

Look at information on:

Body Talk

Tough Talk

Identity Talk

Youthline Talk

If you would like Youthline to come out to your school, phone the Youthline office on (09) 376 6645.