Youth Development Unit Central

About

Welcome to the NZ Defence Force Partnership for Youth Development "YDU" Facebook page. For more info, see http://reserves.mil.nz/youth-development/

Story

Youth Development Unit.
The work of the New Zealand Defence Force’s Youth Development Unit (YDU) has become one of the NZDF’s success stories in recent years.

Since 2010 over 7,500 young people have passed through one of its programmes, and now the benefits it delivers have been recognised overseas - in 2013 the Cook Islands Police and High Commission asked the unit to run a programme there.

The YDU has a structure similar to an Army battalion, with headquarters at Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch and three sub-units, at Hobsonville (Auckland), Trentham (Upper Hutt) and Burnham.

Its two programmes are the Limited Service Volunteers, for 17-25 year old registered unemployed people, supported by Work and Income (about 1,500 places a year); and Youth Life Skills (over 1,000 places a year), which provides a variety of motivational courses and activities for 12-17 year olds. These are supported by several government departments and youth organisations, such as the NZ Police-supported Blue Light programme and the Ministry of Education, through high school Service Academy programmes.

The unit employs over 120 serving and retired Regular Force and Reserve personnel, who have all undergone rigorous screening and completed specialist training for the job.

There are three sub-units:
1. YDU North,
2. YDU Central, and
3. YDU South.

What is a Service Academy?
Service academies are military focused programmes delivered in secondary schools in funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE). The target student group is Year 12 and 13 students who are at risk of disengaging from school. The purpose of a service academy is to encourage students to stay engaged in learning. The programme is designed to help students gain improved qualifications and help them prepare to move successfully into the workforce or to further education and training.

Blue Light Programme.
In 2011 Blue Light Ventures, a charitable organisation, in association with the New Zealand Police and New Zealand Defence Force established an agreement to provide Youth Life Skills Courses based on the Defence Force’s Youth Development programme.

The aim is to introduce students to a range of Life Skills through a military style methodology that promotes and fosters teamwork, and to set in place the foundation for continued training, education and personal development once they return back to their home and communities.

Additionally, goals set out by NZ BLV state that the Youth Life-skills program aims to be an intervention that provides positive sustainable alternatives in situations where young people are at risk of becoming juvenile offenders, victims of crime, and/or displaying deviant social behaviour. The action based learning program incorporates Adventure-related Experiential Learning (AEL) methodologies to facilitate the transfer of learning and establish a more positive frame of reference purposed to initiate a process of:

Improving the relationship between young people, their families, the community and the Police. Changing anti-social behaviour and preventing crime. Introducing young people to support systems that will help them develop positive personal, team work, and social skills.
Exposing them to situations that require goal-setting, self discipline, and perseverance.
Introducing them to basic leadership skills.