The report, A Roadmap for Improving Rangatahi Participation in South Invercargill, was prepared by RSL Consultancy for Active Southland and tabled at the Invercargill City Council’s Community and Regulatory Committee meeting on Tuesday.
The report sets out a roadmap for improving participation, identifies key barriers and areas of potential focus for organisations and individuals seeking to help improve participation.
Going forward, it will be important to co-design and cocreate initiatives and opportunities with the South Invercargill community, especially with rangatahi, the report says.
Speaking to the report, Active Southland chief executive Vanessa Hughey-Pol said it was not about spending more money to remove barriers and improve participation.
The council had facilities and Active Southland the knowledge of how to get the most of those facilities.
"We're talking about smart collaboration and investment where we can use our resources together for maximum impact."
Active Southland staff already had a good working relationship with council parks and recreation manager Caroline Rain and her team.
The question was how could this relationship be developed to benefit communities, Ms Hughey-Pol said.
During the discussion, Cr Darren Ludlow asked Ms Hughey-Pol if there was anything in the report that surprised her.
Ms Hughey-Pol said it was mentioned in the report that some people thought they received less council services in the south of the city.
Whether that was a perception or reality needed to be explored because "we want to make sure no-one misses out", she said.
Cr Trish Boyle asked if any thought had been given to how rangatahi might be involved more.
Ms Hughey-Pol said Active Southland had partnered with an organisation that specialised in auditing existing facilities to understand how facilities were viewed by young people.
"Some of that auditing, for want of a better word, gives us a sense of how we could make some movement or shift in that facility so it becomes more youthfriendly."
