Building spaces for young people to contribute meaningfully to the region before they leave school. The Western Bay of Plenty isn’t short of talent. Not even close. We’re growing it, shaping it and cheering it on from the sidelines every week. 

Walk through our schools and you’ll find debaters, paddlers, young politicians, innovators, Shakespeare orators, film festival organisers, artists, coders, builders, athletes and young entrepreneurs already testing themselves against the world. They’ve grown up on our playgrounds, beaches, sports fields, rivers, marae and surf breaks. They know this place in their bones. 

But knowing a place and feeling needed by it aren’t quite the same thing. We pour so much into young people while they’re growing up. We teach them, coach them, drive them, fundraise for them, feed them, clap too loudly for them and tell them they can do anything. Then, sometimes without meaning to, we ask them to wait. Wait until they’re older. Wait until they’re qualified. Wait until they’ve left, learned, proved themselves somewhere else and maybe come back. 

I think that’s too late. 

Belonging doesn’t suddenly arrive at graduation. Pride doesn’t turn up with a certificate. Contribution isn’t something young people should only be invited into once they’re useful to an employer. It starts much earlier, in those moments when someone beyond their immediate circle takes their thinking seriously. 

One of my daughters learned this at age 12. A teacher believed in her class project enough to send it through to council. That small act landed her on the Mount Skate Park planning committee where, as a pre-teen, her voice was deliberately asked for, heard and valued. Her voice was appreciated by people she saw as bigger and more important than her parents. Her contribution moved beyond the classroom and landed in concrete, steel, rails, ramps and public space.  

Pride – tick. Valued contribution – tick. Belonging – tick.  Likelihood of putting her hand up again – high. 

That’s what meaningful contribution does. It changes young people’s stance towards a place. They stop being future residents, future workers, future leaders, future anything.  

They become contributors now. 

And this is where our region has a choice. We can keep inviting young people to observe adult systems from the edges, or we can create more safe, real, visible ways for them to take part. Not token participation. Not a laminated certificate and a photo. Real briefs. Real problems. Real audiences. Real feedback. Real acknowledgement. 

It might look like a local business handing a Year 11 class a genuine customer problem.  

It might look like council asking rangatahi to test public-space ideas before the design is settled. It might look like iwi, community organisations, tech firms, orchards, logistics companies, builders, designers or exporters opening up the messy questions they’re wrestling with. It might look like a student standing up and realising their idea didn’t just earn a grade – it helped make something better. 

If we want young people to see a future here, they need more than career inspiration. They need proof of belonging. They need to feel the region noticing them before it starts recruiting them. They need to experience the confidence that comes from being trusted early with work that matters. 

Because once a young person can point to something in the Western Bay and say, “I helped make that better,” the relationship changes. They’re no longer simply from here. They’re invested here. So, before we ask why they leave, let’s ask what we’ve invited them into. What can they see? Where can they contribute? Who is taking their thinking seriously? Which doors have we opened before they walk out of the school gates? 

The Western Bay is already a basket of opportunity. The question is whether our young people can see the handle, reach it and believe it’s been left there for them. If we want them to grow into this place, not just out of it, the work starts early: value their voice, trust their contribution and let them help shape the region they already call home. 

This piece is the first in our new series, The Talent We Already Have.

If you want to keep up to date, sign up to Priority One’s fortnightly newsletter featuring expert insights, opportunities and free events here.