Member Profile
Crossroads Youth with a Future
Crossroads Youth with a Future provides ongoing support for ‘at risk youth’ in Aranui and the surrounding areas of Christchurch. Youth workers accompany young people on their life journey to encourage positive goals, ambition, confidence and resilience by providing a reliable network of hope and trust. Using a holistic approach, Crossroads makes use of spiritual, emotional, mental, behavioural and physical support that actively includes whānau, the wider community and other organisations. The Stay Real programme is an integral aspect of our service, which builds upon the resilience of youth through outcome focused activities and mentoring relationships. Crossroads provides a dependable long-term support network to lift up the youth in our community and enable them to make plans for, and believe in, their future. Stay Real This is a 12 step programme providing young people with tools and strategies that will help them cope with situations and issues in their lives. Stay Real is not counselling or therapy, but it can help young people take responsibility for their own behaviour, help them to become more resilient and feel better about themselves. Young people meet weekly in small groups with a facilitator. Using the 12 steps, they talk about issues they face and discuss together how to deal with them better. Each fortnight the group also participates in an all-day activity like kayaking and cycling, trips to Hanmer Springs or the museum. Some of the issues that come up in the programmes are bullying, anger, violence, drug use, family and friends’ concerns. Depot 49 Drop-In Centre Within the heart of the Aranui community, we provide a youth drop-in centre one night a week during the school term. The Depot provides a safe base for recreational activities like pool, table tennis, darts and basketball, as well as allowing for ongoing one-on-one mentoring and leadership training. Every October we take up to 16 young people who have attended our Wednesday night during the year on a week-long camp at Karitane. https://www.facebook.com/stayrealeastside49