Wanganui District Councillors were introduced to the group of young people who are moving Wanganui's Youth Council programme forward yesterday.
About a dozen young people, calling themselves the Wanganui Youth Collective, described what they had achieved so far and outlined their plans.
Regular meetings at the Youth Services Trust in recent weeks
established there was a need for greater youth input into council and a desire to find out what Wanganui youth wanted in their city after, "troublesome events" last year.
Justin Gush said being involved with the collective was an exciting time.
"We're empowering ourselves in youth issues, but there's still not all youth represented ? we're going to target those groups," he said.
Jay Rerekura hoped the Youth Collective would dispel some of the stigma attached to Wanganui youth.
"There's lots of positive happenings with youth in the area."
The group has been studying other youth councils around New Zealand to see what format and structure would best suit Wanganui needs.
"We want to ask the council if it's feasible and create a timeline so we can show you what progress we've made? we want to do this right the first time," Wanganui Youth MP Stephanie Lewis said.
Cr Sue Westwood congratulated the group on their hard work, but reminded them not to re-invent the wheel and learn from what others had done.
"It's far better to tap into those people ? they've made the errors," she said.
Cr Westwood said an opportunity for youth to be involved in the council progress was to speak to youth items at the Community Committee meetings.
She told the group she was more than happy to meet them informally to discuss the district council's Annual Plan. Cr Randhir Dahya asked the group how they would attract people who created the "trouble" in the community.
Miss Lewis replied one strategy was a youth venue that gave young people a sense of place and hopefully a feeling of ownership.
However, solutions would be left until a united group under the Youth Council was formed.
Youth facilitator Yadana Saw said the same question could be applied to how adults dealt with troublesome adults.
"We've got jails for them," Cr Dahya quipped.. "I wish you all the best."
The Community Committee resolved council would continue to work with the Youth Collective, who would report back to future committee meetings.
