Youth Strategy

Published: 22 December 2024

Last Updated: 18 March 2025

To help us consider the views of young people, we have a Youth Council of 17 teenagers who live, work or go to school in Napier. Along with that, we developed a Youth Strategy back in 2018. The Strategy sets out goals and plans to help our young people thrive and achieve their goals.

It’s now time to review the strategy, so we sought the views of our city’s young people in October 2024.

We gathered people’s thoughts at various city locations and schools, asking them what they thought would help them and their peers flourish as young people in Napier. We received 266 formal responses and a further 160 informal responses.

The main themes we heard were, there needs to be more for young people to do in Napier, and they want more opportunity to feel involved in decision-making. Also high on the list of concerns were mental health issues and the influence of social media, trouble coping at school, feeling left out and wanting more opportunities for work or internships.

We are now working through the feedback with youth organisations. If you are aged 12 to 24 and want to be involved, get in touch with Tiffiny Knauf, tiffinyk@napier.govt.nz.
The draft strategy will be ready by mid-2025.

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