Earlier this year, we created a new online index of child and youth engagement reports to strengthen the representation of children and young people.
The index’s creation (May 2023) was one of 16 recommendations resulting from the review of the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy (August 2022), which focused on supporting the Strategy to continue to be a catalyst for, and driver of, system change. The index is intended to help:
- raise the visibility of insights and perspectives of children and young people
- inform and influence the development of policies programmes and service delivery
- guide the direction of any further engagement.
The index has just been updated with nine extra reports as shown in the table below. While most of these reports are new, some are older and are being systematically added as we continue to build the index overtime.
We will continue to update the index as further reports are published and sourced. If you have an engagement report that you think should be included in the index, please contact us with the details at email: [email protected].
You can also find the full collection of child and youth engagement reports here.
Engagement report name | Brief description | Author/s | date |
| Evaluation of Kōkihi ngā Rito | This evaluation draws primarily on feedback from children themselves about how individualised family violence advocacy makes them safer. It evaluates the effectiveness of the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges’ (NCIWR) child advocacy pilot - Kōkihi ngā Rito. | Women's Refuge | November 2023 |
| "My Thighs Can Squash You": Young Māori and Pasifika Wāhine Celebration of Strong Brown Bodies | This paper contributes to a growing international dialogue about the need for new culturally-informed understandings of body image by young women from indigenous and culturally marginalised communities. | Mihi Joy Nemani - School of Sport, Manukau Institute of Technology and School of Health, University of Waikato and Holly Thorpe - School of Health, University of Waikato | November 2023 |
| Honour My World | Rangatahi who transition to adulthood from the care of Oranga Tamariki have an ‘Entitlement to Remain or Return’ to living with a caregiver up to the age of 21 years. The uptake of ETRR has been lower than expected. VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai have sought to understand why. | VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai | September 2023 |
This report, funded by the Ministry of Youth Development, addresses participation barriers to including refugee and ethnic migrant youth voice in decision-making. | Ministry of Youth Development | September 2023 | |
| Mokopuna Voices Summary 2021 | This 2021 report includes wide representation of children and young people and collected voices from five face-to-face engagements and an online survey. | Office of the Children's Commissioner | August 2022 |
| In June 2021, Women’s Refuge released a research report into what children need to feel safe after family violence. Nineteen children aged 5-13 were interviewed by specialist researchers about their experiences of finding safety and support. | Women's Refuge | June 2021 | |
| What Makes a Good Life? Follow-up report: Views of children and young people in care on wellbeing | Oranga Tamariki and the Office of the Children's Commissioner heard from 113 children and young people under the age of 18 who were in care and compared their responses to those not in care. | Oranga Tamariki I Ministry for Children and the Office of the Children's Commissioner | November 2019 |
What Makes a Good Life for Young Parents? | This report summarises insights from 15 young people under the age of 18 who were themselves parents. | Office of the Children's Commissioner | Oranga Tamariki (Ministry for Children) | November 2019 |
A Hard Place To Be Happy - Insights Report | This report shares insights from 52 children and young people who were living in secure care and protection residences, run by Oranga Tamariki and Barnardos, between August 2017 and September 2018. It describes those insights and includes quotes from children and young people. | Office of the Children’s Commissioner | October 2019 |