Like many charities and non-profit organisations working to support young people the last couple of years have brought us a fair share of challenges. We’ve experienced a reduction in funding even while the needs of the community continue to grow, and we’ve seen a surge in negative portrayals of youth in the media and political discourse. Because much of our work isn’t ‘frontline’ it’s also not been easy to fund.
As one of our board members is fond of saying, we don't believe in “wasting a good crisis” and these challenges have inspired plenty of creativity and deep-thinking about our purpose. Our board has been busy talking to people in our network to understand the needs of the youth mentoring sector. One thing that has emerged as crystal clear is the importance of having a strong network to facilitate community knowledge sharing, collaboration, and impact.
If you haven't heard from us but you think you might have something to add to that discussion then please send us a message. We love to hear from anyone providing youth mentoring support in their community, and your perspectives are important.
Politics is people
A central part of our strategy is to advocate for better awareness of mentoring, along with more support for the youth mentoring sector as a whole. So we were very pleased in May to get the opportunity to meet with the Minister for Youth, the Hon. James Meagher, for an energetic discussion about youth mentoring, funding for the sector, understanding impact and also understanding the scope of mentoring activity in general in Aotearoa. Representing NZYMN was our Chair, Ann Dunphy, supported by trustee Joy Eaton and former GM James McGoram.
Minister Meagher is no stranger to youth mentoring and has shared some of his experiences of having a mentor previously, so it was affirming to have a message of support for mentoring from his office after the meeting. We’ve linked to that letter below.
As is often the case, some of the conversation focused on the youth justice aspects of mentoring. We are of course firm believers that mentoring has an important role to play in improving outcomes for young people caught up in the criminal justice system, but we were equally keen to emphasise that mentoring is widely used for a diverse range of young people and to meet a diverse range of needs – from general support & wellbeing through to educational attainment and cultural connection. The wide scope of communities using youth mentoring to support young people is something that our 2025 study made exceptionally clear.
Our concern, as highlighted in our presentation Young People No Problem, is that there is an undue focus on ‘youth crime’ or ‘problem youth’ that is at odds with reality and the broad challenges faced by young people across society today. This can shift efforts away from positive development and towards punitive approaches – a viewpoint we were keen to share with the Minister.
Of course, our 2025 study into youth mentoring also highlighted some big gaps in our understanding. We discussed these gaps and the role that organisations like NZYMN can take in partnering with the MYD to improve our understanding of impact. We’ve since held follow-up discussions with MYD to explore these ideas.
Be part of the conversation
There is an election coming up and we’re very aware that the issues facing youth can quickly become political. It is therefore very fortunate that mentoring is a social practice that is recognised as positive by people from across all political and cultural divides!
Wherever possible we’re eager to engage with policy makers to emphasise the crucial role that mentoring has to play in building social cohesion, community and connection, and we'll be reaching out to representatives from all parties in the coming months. We encourage anyone else who feels this way to also reach out to your MP, or to write to the minister.
There’s never been a better time to get political attention - which can be translated into more support - and perhaps encourage some positive shifts in direction over the coming three years.
