In 2025, Youth of Ōrākei reached more than 8,000 local youth, creating meaningful opportunities for them to get out and be involved in the community.
Youth of Ōrākei is a group of volunteers aged 15-20 who work together to improve the livelihoods of rangatahi (young people) in the area through various projects. The organisation is funded by Ōrākei Local Board.
“Last year we put in over 2,000 volunteer hours and delivered 17 projects across Ōrākei,” says Youth of Ōrākei chair, Aaron Leong.
The youth council’s strategic goals are to inspire, represent and connect the youth in our community.
Aaron has been part of Youth of Ōrākei since 2024 when he was in year 12 at Selwyn College.
“We do our best to address a wide range of youth related issues, whether that is environmental issues, mental health, academic stress or just giving a platform to youth to connect with others or showcase their talents.”
The council is currently made up of 31 rangatahi, some of whom deliver projects, others who do event promotions and marketing, and a leadership team. They meet once a week in Meadowbank for two hours. To be a member you have to learn, work or live in the Ōrākei Ward area.
Youth of Ōrākei mural project, 2025.
The projects Youth of Ōrākei delivers vary each year. Past events include tree planting events, Quizex (a cross between a quiz night and Mathex), a music competition, a clothing drive, leadership conferences, careers workshops and a mural painting project.
An annual favourite is the Youth Film Festival.
“It’s an outlet for local media studies students, who create a film as part of their media studies assessments,” explains Aaron.
“For young film makers, there’s not really a platform to showcase their film making talent. We thought ‘why don’t we give them a chance to show this to the community?’
“The films are submitted online with a brief synopsis and then everyone gets together one night at the cinemas in Mission Bay and we play all the films on the big screen.
“That’s probably the main project that inspired me and a lot of people to join the council as well.”
For anyone keen to head along to upcoming events, you can follow them on Instagram - @youthoforakei or Facebook.
If you or a young person you know is interested in becoming a member, they do a recruitment drive every year around September.
Aaron says they have a close relationship with the secondary schools in the area which nominate students each year, but you can also nominate yourself.
“There is no feeling quite like seeing a rough brainstorming session turn into a successful event that tangibly improves the lives of rangatahi.
“To be surrounded by a team of like-minded and driven young individuals all working to create positive change in the community has made this experience incredibly fulfilling.”
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