Children and young people are involved and empowered
The Youth Voice Project focuses on increasing youth voice and youth representation across government.
The Hive is one initiative under the Youth Voice Project. It aims to increase young people’s participation in the policy development process by building a relationship, trust and two-way communication between young people and government agencies through the use of social media, and an innovative technological platform. The Biodiversity Strategy consultation was used as a pilot policy consultation for The Hive. Young people were involved in co-designing a youth-friendly consultation process which resulted in 281 young people making submissions. Of these, 84% reported that they had never previously submitted to government.
The Hive is also collaborating on a project with the Climate Change Commission.
A new group of young people were appointed to The Hive in 2021, with tuakana-teina model mentoring in place with the exiting members. A steering group has been established to oversee the work.