Congratulations to the Achievers from Opawa School in Christchurch who researched and wrote this paper on consulting children.
Well done everyone!

~Consultation For Young People~

~Introduction~

We are the RYPIC

We are the RYPIC, the Representatives for Young People In Christchurch and we are part of an extension group called GlobalNet. We are campaigning for more consultation towards the young people of Christchurch.

We feel that the young people of Christchurch do not get enough choice in what happens to their city.

We feel that children and young people have the right to be consulted or at least know what is going on in the city that will be theirs one day.

~Ways Young People Could Be Consulted~

We would like to be consulted as equals, rather than inferiors
We would like to be consulted personally, or with questionnaires
We think that voting polls are a good way to find out what young people in the city want or what they are like

~What They Could Be Consulted About~

Children and young people of Christchurch could be consulted about the details of their play areas, swimming pools, schools, libraries and other places of interest to young people in our city

Young people should sometimes be consulted about the minor things happening in our city that do not involve them, but that they will use one day when they get a job or have children.

~What Do You Think About Consulting Young People~

o If you think that our ideas could be productive and useful in Christchurch please tick the circle at the start of the sentence.
o If you think that our ideas were good but there would be too much involved to put them all into action tick the circle at the start of this sentence.
o If you think our ideas were reasonable but you could think of several improvements of your own please tick the circle at the start of the sentence.
o If you like things the way they are and think that nothing would be achieved by putting our ideas into action, please tick the circle at the start of this sentence
o If you think that our ideas would make the city less youth-friendly please tick the circle at the start of the sentence

~Is Our City Child-Friendly?~

Please tick the circle which marks the start of the sentence that describes how you feel about our city’s youth protection

o Our city is extremely youth-friendly, we could not improve our youth safety programmes
o Our city is pretty fair on the youth-friendly front but we could improve our youth’s safety
o Our city’s youth safety programmes aren’t doing much for our young people and they could improve greatly
o Our youth programmes are completely useless and do not increase our youth’s awareness, my ideas could improve them to no end

Our Views On Our City

Our city is a reasonably child friendly zone, but is it safe for adults, why just this morning our car was stolen, so what can we do to make adults safer?

The crime rate in our city is very low, but this is only because the police don’t count small things such as bike-theft as crime and because our crime-rate is only low compared to other cities in the world.

Our city may be pretty safe for us, but what about our animals?
All the litter in our rivers are a danger to ducks, seagulls and other river-life, the poisons, such as 1080, used in the meadows and forests endangers not just possums but all the other wildlife living in these areas, including our pets and native birds. Also fishing in lakes and rivers although tempting and relaxing may not be the best solution to feeding hungry mouths, our rivers and lakes are endangered of becoming over-fished and then no one will be able to enjoy a nice fishing trip.

~Why Young People Should Be Consulted~

Young people should be consulted because their ideas and feelings are very different from an adult’s, they are not afraid to voice their fears and worries.

Young people are creative and although some of their ideas may be silly, others can be very sensible and sometimes adults would never have thought of anything like what a child can come up with.

Thank-you for your time and we hope that some of our ideas have stimulated your minds into action towards children’s consultation

Congratulations to the Achievers from Opawa School in Christchurch who researched and wrote this paper on consulting children. Well done everyone!