New Zealand Federation of Ethnic Councils

YOUTH COUNCIL
We are the youth council of the NZFEC. Although we are a relatively new council, formed in the last year, we aim to be an inspirational, young and dynamic group – who take ethnic and diversity issues seriously.

We have started getting members for the Youth Council. The youth age ranges from 13 – 28 years old! Our members come from a variety of backgrounds including Indian, Filipino and Maori, Kiwi’s, Malaysian and more. Age is no barrier to our council. We welcome anyone and everyone who is young and youthful at heart! We are still in the scope of working out what our goals and objectives are – however, in order to build on this strategy we’d like to get more members – young youth who are active and vibrant and want to get involved in ethnicity and diversity.

We aim to be a fun, activities, and an information based council that meet up every 3 months at different parts of New Zealand to plan out what we want to do and where we want to head!

More tangible outcomes on planned activities are to be decided and confirmed to at our next meeting in October.

Youth Council Mandate

“To assist in providing the ethnic youth of New Zealand with a quality of life that is second to none”

We will do this by: Maximising opportunities for young ethnic people through facilitation and provision of a range of activities, events and venues that welcome diversity.

Who are we?

President:
Arti Prasad
Phone: 021 296 0327
Email: arti.prasad@gmail.com

 Youth Council Motto

"Ethnicity is cool, that is our premise"

Youth Forum January 2009

Youth Council on the go!

The New Zealand Federation of Ethnic Councils Youth Council, hosted their first youth forum on the 17th of January 2009 at Anvil House in Wellington. There were 25 participants in total who travelled from Christchurch, Invercargill, Wellington, Tauranga, Auckland; and Wanganui to be a part of a national planning day to encourage participation from youth of a diverse background. Arti Prasad-Naidu, President of the Youth Council set the scene for the day by re-emphasising the purpose of the forum - to strategically plan the council's outcomes.

The participants engaged in conversations around ethnicity, challenges faced and what it means to be a New Zealander. Pancha Narayanan, President of the New Zealand Federation of Ethnic Councils, mentioned how he envisions the youth council leading the way to a 'multi-cultural' New Zealand. The participants planned 3 major outcomes they would like to achieve as a Council, these included; a stock take of current services available to young people leading to opportunities at school and universities, initiatives for youth to promote cultural diversity and promote “ethnicity as cool”, and a conference on closing the generation gap – challenge faced by ethnic youth because of expectations placed by their parents. This is a 3 year strategic plan.

The New Zealand Police and the Office of Ethnic Affairs was invited as guest speakers during the day. The Council hopes that the report from the forum will be used a platform for advocating the needs for young people in Government.
 
Contact Details.

For more information about the NZFEC Youth Council - Contact Arti Prasad (Youth President) at youthcouncil@nzfec.org.nz

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