North Canterbury News: December 02, 2021

NEWS
36 North Canterbury News, December 2, 2021
Youth leaders ... Waimakariri district councillor Niki Mealings (left), Waimakariri Youth
Council chairperson Ellie Tizzard, Chloe Betony, Mayor Dan Gordon, Ruby Wilson, youth
development facilitator Emily Belton and chief executive Jim Harland came together on
Friday to recognise the YouthVoice Canterbury Awards.
PHOTO:SUPPLIED
Youth service recognised
The Waimakariri District has recognised
two youth leaders with aspecial lunch on
Friday.
With the annual YouthVoice
Canterbury awards evening cancelled
due to Covid­19, Mayor Dan Gordon and
chief executive Jim Harland shouted
lunch for Waimakariri’s two award
winners, Ruby Wilson and Chloe Betony.
‘‘We are incredibly proud of these
outstanding young people and their drive
and commitment to play apart in
creating apositive tomorrow for our
district and region,’’ Mr Gordon says.
‘‘It’s apleasure to work with Ruby and
Chloe on the Youth Council.’’
Ruby, who is the Waimakariri Youth
Council deputy chairperson, won the
Matt Doocey MP supreme award for
Waimakariri and was runner­up for the
‘change­maker award’.
‘‘Ruby has done an incredible amount
in our community, not only in her Youth
Council and WaiYouth roles, but also
volunteering through her church, school
and wider community including regional
youth networks,’’ Mr Gordon says.
Fellow youth councillor, Chloe was
runner­up for the environmental action
award.
‘‘Chloe has been instrumental in
developing our youth­led environmental
projects,’’ Mr Gordon says.
‘‘This includes local river clean ups
and the Biota Node project, in
partnership with Te Kohaka oTuhaitara
Trust.’’
The annual youth awards is an
opportunity to champion youth and
celebrate the work young people do in
the Canterbury region.
Youth Voice Canterbury announced
this year’s youth awards via its Facebook
page last week.
Young driver safety priority
Taking adefensive driving
course changed rural
teenager Hillary Cooper’s
confidence to test her
skills on the open road.
The Oxford Area School
Year 11 student now wants
to use her role as
Waimakariri’s brand new
Youth MP to help other
young people in
Waimakariri learn to drive
safely on the electorate’s
open roads.
Waimakariri MP Matt
Doocey says he received a
high calibre of
applications from young
people wanting to be his
next Youth MP.
‘‘It was great to have the
input of my previous
Youth MP, Ellie Tizzard,
and Waimakariri District
Council Youth and
Development Facilitator
Emily Belton, as two of the
judges on the selection
panel to make the very
hard choice of who would
represent Waimakariri’s
young people at Youth
Parliament.’’
Youth Parliament will
be held on July 19 and 20,
2022.
Hillary fronted the
interview panel armed
with an exciting project
she was ready to drive
from the get­go.
She wanted to remove
barriers for youth in
Waimakariri to accessing
driver training and
learning to drive safely on
our open roads, Mr Doocey
says.
Driving success ... Hillary Cooper will be working as
Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey's new Youth MP to raise
awareness of the importance of making driver training and
defensive driving courses more accessible to young people.
Living in arural
community, Hillary knows
how difficult it can be for
our young people to access
driver training, especially
defensive driving skills.
‘‘She convinced me how
important it is for
community safety that our
young drivers have the
skills they need to drive
defensively and safely,’’Mr
Doocey says.
Hillary says young
people in Waimakariri
struggle to get where they
need to be with parents
working and driver licence
fees and accessibility to
lessons often out of reach.
‘‘Growing up on adairy
PHOTO: SUPPLIED
farm, Iknow those barriers
are very real and Iwant to
see driver training
programmes implemented
in our schools.
‘‘This is an issue Iwant
to take to Wellington to
raise in Youth Parliament.
Defensive driving courses
are offered at acost that is
prohibitive to young
people, yet they have been
proved to increase
community safety. Having
more courses and mentors
will save lives.’’
Hillary will be reaching
out to young people across
Waimakariri to get their
feedback ahead of Youth
Parliament next year.
Readership
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50,000
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