We are a group called Changesz, which is a group made up of students from local schools in Glen Innes making a positive change in our community. We are writing this letter in response to a letter that was previously published in the courier following the article on the MAGIC centre. We support the MAGIC centre because it’s a place to hang out, it would also provide our community and us with the facilities to showcase our artistic and creative sides. The letter wrote by Andrew Coleman made us feel angry, sad, offended and under-valued. We need the MAGIC centre for Babylon Rhythm, One Room Records and P.E Studios and other talented teenagers to practice and perform their talents. We see a group Babylon Rhythm practicing, but the issue is they all can’t fit in the room because it’s too small. If you were to come watch them practice you will understand why we need the MAGIC centre. Seeing all of them bunch up in a small room, with the drummer playing the drums in another room, the guys playing the trumpets outside the door because they all can’t fit in one room to practice their songs. There are also other talented kids who we know love to rap and rap about their lives and experiences. You would also understand if you were to take time and listen. One group called, “One Room Records”, make their songs in a tent at the back of one guy’s house with all their gear, but the issue is that when it rains they have to rush all their equipment into the house so it won’t get wet. What would solve this is if we do have a MAGIC centre. They would be able to record their songs properly without worrying about their gear getting wet. These are only a couple of our stories but we invite you Andrew Coleman to come spend a day with us to see with your own two eyes why we really need the MAGIC centre.

Peace out Doxx

Definition of Doxx – A really close friend

The name of our youth group is Changesz. What does our name mean to us? It means, if you don’t like something change it; and if you can’t change it, then change the way you think about it. Our message to Tamaki youth is this: Get active with Changesz! We want to make a positive difference in our community by making things happen for youth and their families. We’re a group you can join if you’re bored. Instead of making trouble, come and chill out with us, and have some fun. Any youth can join us.

Who are we? We’re students at Tamaki College, Sacred Heart College and Selwyn College. We live in Glen Innes, Point England, Panmure and Mt Wellington. Changesz is a way for us to get together with other youth living in our community. We meet every Thursday evening for a couple hours, usually from around 5.00-7.00 pm. There’s about 16 of us currently involved in the group and we come along when we can. A hard core of about 8 of us turns up every week and we pull in others when we’re organising events. We always have food! We talk about what’s happening in the community and focus on issues that are relevant to youth and their families. We look for the strengths in our community and try to come up with solutions that will work for us. When we meet, we tell stories, share ideas, learn new things and make plans to take on new challenges. We’re a whanau; we do things together and our actions show that we care about one another.

Changesz is action-orientated. Instead of staying home and watching television, we organise and invite youth and their families to come along to different events. We’ve only been going for about a year but we’ve already done heaps of things. We’ve made presentations to the community about our group. Last year, we did some facilitation training and facilitated a workshop with about 80 students from our local schools. We encouraged the students to talk about the issues they’re dealing with and things affecting youth in our community. We created a play about the effects of drinking alcohol and partying on the weekend. We talked about things like: ‘It’s okay to go out and have a good time on the weekend but what’s the point in getting wasted? If you party hard all weekend, you probably won’t be able to concentrate in class on Monday.’ In the evening, parents and families came along and we talked with them about positive ways to sort out issues over dinner. We talked about some big issues, such as alcohol, gambling and domestic violence. We got people thinking about their strengths and naming some solutions that might work for them. We wanted to deal with the real things that happen to youth and their families on a day to day basis.

We organized a cook off earlier in the year which was held on a Friday evening at the Panmure Community Hall. We had bands playing and the food mean! People really enjoyed themselves. (HOW MANY CAME? WHAT KINDS OF COMMENTS DID YOU HEAR PEOPLE MAKE ABOUT THAT EVENT? HOW DID YOU FEEL AT THE END OF IT – WHAT IT WORTH YOUR EFFORT TO ORGANISE IT AND IF SO WHY?)

We participated in the Family Day Out, which was part of the Top Town Competition at Mt Wellington. We had our own tent and told visitors what Changesz is all about, encouraging other youth to get involved. It was an opportunity for us to reach out into our community and let people know who we are and what we’re about. We jump at opportunities to spread the word about who we are as a group.

We’ve taken up opportunities to stand up and speak out about issues affecting youth and their families in our community. We did a video montage of why the proposed MAGIC Centre was important to youth in our community, what it could offer us and why we wanted Auckland City Council to fund it. We also got involved in a petition seeking community support to decrease alcohol (?sales and promotion) in stores in our community. (WHAT WAS IT LIKE FOR YOU TO STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT ON THESE ISSU