Primal Youth

Community

Since 1997, Primal Youth Trust has grown to be one of the most exciting and expansive youth community organisations in the country. Primal operates several high profile youth events throughout the year, with thousands of people taking part.

Primal Youth hosts 20 Youth Churches throughout New Zealand every Thursday night (with up to 1000 young people attending each week) This is volunteer based and is used as a platform to promote community events for the trust.

The Primal community strategy focuses on three key outputs: events, leadership and creative arts. With over 15 years experience in these fields, we have proven this focus to be very effective in training and equipping young people to live productive lives.

Primal Youth aligns strongly with the Government’s Youth Development Strategy (MSD, 2004), which states the importance of ‘quality relationships’, ‘connectedness to the community’ and ‘youth participation and engagement’. We believe that through our community programmes and activities, young people are given the chance to access these models and apply them in their lives to achieve self-belief, identity and purpose.

Primal Community Stategy

PRIMAL YOUTH are social entrepreneurs with a passion to help young people between the ages of 12-25 achieve their potential in life. Our community strategy is helping thousands of young people every year through Great Events, Leadership and Creative Arts.

Great Events

PRIMAL YOUTH offers a relevant alternative social environment, which is drug and alcohol free. This acts as a ‘safe alternative’ to binge drinking, parties and lawlessness.

A recent time use survey found that:

• Young people (aged 12 -24) are less likely than other age groups to socialise at home, but spend more time than other age groups socialising in other locations.
• Young people spend more time than other age groups on informal cultural activities (e.g. cinema, performing arts, visiting libraries, hobbies and games).
• By providing these events we are giving young people a positive alternative whilst encouraging and facilitating social connectedness.

Leadership

PRIMAL YOUTH is a mentoring and leadership programme. Through participation in a range of leadership and volunteer roles, young people move from ‘passive participation’ to mentoring their peers. This supports our motto ‘young people reaching young people’. Social participation is critical for youth development. It gives young people a sense of belonging and of contributing to decisions that affect them.

Studies show that young people who are involved in programmes and activities like ours are less likely to be involved in crime, and there is an established need to make sure that young people spend ‘most of their time with people who respect the law and are succeeding in constructive activities’.

We believe that ‘young people are key stakeholders in youth development. They invest time and energy when participating in the youth development programmes and activities. When young people talk about their involvement in youth development, they describe how becoming engaged in youth development programmes and activities has made a difference to their own lives and to the lives of others in their communities.’

Creative Arts

PRIMAL YOUTH excels in the creative arts. Through participation in the arts, young people are given the chance to express to their peers a sense of self-worth and accomplishment. Through music, dance and drama, young people will have the chance to use their gifts and develop their potential.

A recent Creative New Zealand survey showed that 82 percent of Aucklanders agree that the arts help define who we are as New Zealanders. As young people find purpose and definition in who they are through the arts, they will develop a sense of self-worth and belonging, essential to the development of themselves and the community.

Community Stategy

Dance and Hip Hop Events – Primal Youth operates monthly dance and krump dance events with a focus on helping young people in South Auckland.

Best Life Course – This is a course for young people between the ages of 16 and 20 focused around creative arts with training in basic life skills and how to run events. It is aimed at raising up a generation of young leaders, to lead the youth of this nation into a great future.

Battle of the Bands/Accoustic Sessions – These are music events run in communities throughout New Zealand for aspiring young musicians, giving them the opportunity to furthur themselves in the New Zealand music industry. These events draw crowds of up to 5000 young people each year and are a key part of our community strategy.

Fasttrack – This is an after school program for preteens aged 6-14 years of age. Young people are taught important values in like honesty, trust and teamwork. Fasttrack is held in two centres in Ellerslie and Manukau on a Friday night.