T H E S P I R I T O F Y O U T H some thoughts employment and inclusion - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - by vivian Hutchinson
vivian Hutchinson is the editor of The Jobs Letter, and Community Adviser to the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs. This paper is based on his keynote speech to the The Spirit of Youth : Pu Maia Rangatahi — Youth in Local Government Conference, held in Rotorua 21-23 May 2002.. This paper can be read on the internet at http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/vivian/spirit02.htm or can be downloaded as a PDF document (14 pages, 263 kb) from http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/pdf/spirit02.pdf About the Conference - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Spirit of Youth : Pu Maia Rangatahi — Youth in Local Government Conference 2002 was organised by the Rotorua District Council in partnership with the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs. The conference is held every two years and is an opportunity for Mayors, Councillors, staff and young people to share experiences and ideas about involving youth in local government activities and decisions. Over seventy youth delegates attended the conference, and workshops were structured around three streams of “environment”, “inclusion” and “employment”. Keynote speakers included vivian Hutchinson, Paula Gillon (a.k.a. The Naked Politician, Councillor with the North Shore City Council ) and Phil Crane (Queensland University of Technology, specialist on Youth and Public Spaces). S O M E E X T R A C T S - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ON INCLUSION “ Social inclusion could be defined as our capacity and willingness to keep all groups within reach of what we expect as a society. In governance terms, social inclusion is about being prepared to make the commitments and investments necessary to ensure all people are within reach of our common aspirations. Livelihood is one such basic common aspiration. And our communities cannot afford to relegate this basic human right to a marketplace of “winners” and “losers”. We cannot keep our young people within reach of our common aspirations when they are out of reach of the livelihood that will enable it...” O N T H E M A Y O R S G O A L “ The Mayors Taskforce for Jobs is really an attempt to have an authentic conversation about a long-term goal — the goal of completely ending the “waste” of those New Zealanders who are unemployed. We estimate that achieving the Mayors first goal — of having everyone under 25 years of age into training or employment by the year 2005 — would have an impact on the lives of about 75,000 young people. This is not just a task for the Department of Work and Income. It’s not even just a “whole of government” task. It’s a task that will require the co-operation, collaboration and co-ordination of the “whole of our communities” in order to ensure that we get the details right...” — from “The Spirit of Youth: some thoughts on employment and inclusion” by vivian Hutchinson (pub 2002 The Jobs Research Trust) U N S U B S C R I B E ------------------------------------- To remove yourself from this free update mailing list, simply send a blank email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
