Youth mentoring network supports fresh start initiatives

At the National Youth Mentoring Conference held in Auckland during August, attendees with experience in the field were impressed by the high levels of care and thought that planners have been bringing for best ways of implementing the government’s vision of the Fresh Start approach.

The conference was delivered by the Youth Mentoring Network, the national body for Youth Mentoring in NZ.

Youth Mentoring Network chairperson Ann Dunphy said, “We are really pleased to see mentoring clearly identified, not as a coercive or short-term remedy for these high-needs young people, but as an important and sustained component of longer-term, wrap-around support.”

 NZ has a major unmet need for mentoring services for young people, so a boost in numbers is overdue.

The network sees Fresh Start as providing a significant opportunity and catalyst, for the training and support of a wide range of mentors in local communities.