A new safe haven for youth in Dunedin's city centre will honour the memory of a teenager fatally stabbed at the bus hub last year.
Enere McLaren-Taana was one of 3016 youth who have participated in Tamariki Together (T&T) youth programmes since 2018, founder and director Tanga Tiatoa said.
Mr Tiatoa said the charity organisation planned to open its new two-storey St Andrew St headquarters in June this year
It is less than 200m from the bus hub where Enere was killed.
But the ground floor would welcome any of Dunedin's youth, including those at the bus hub, Mr Tiatoa.
The plan was to create a "milkshake station" at street level that could host up to 150 people, Mr Tiatoa said.
There were plans for a dance floor, a couple of pool tables, a lounging area, a performing arts stage and a DJ booth, he said.
With Enere's family's blessing it would be known as "JJ's", the nickname Enere had when he attended T&T programmes at the group's North East Valley "Batcave".
"Our first T&T photo has our baby JJ on there," Mr Tiatoa said yesterday.
"He was that little boy with the Nerf gun hanging with our youth programme."
The tragic fatal stabbing and its aftermath put the challenges youth in the city were facing into focus.
It also "sort of boosted our confidence to ask for help", he said.
T&T has recently received $85,000 from the Lottery Grants Board to help develop its city centre venue.
The safe space was needed in Dunedin, Mr Tiatoa said, "especially for young ones like JJ".
"What it does is [it] just allows the young ones from the bus hub to come in here, especially ones that we haven't met," Mr Tiatoa said.
"And once they come through here we can build a bond with them, and they also get to see in depth of what we're about."
T&T began as a programme at First Church with 11 youth, he said, but its close connection to the church was seen as a barrier for some youth to join and the programme changed to support all Dunedin youth.
It moved into the Batcave, Mr Tiatoa's double garage, in North East Valley.
The activities youth took part in as a part of the programme were often throwback games from the 1980s, 1970s or 1960s, such as knucklebones, which proved to be a hit with some of the children, Mr Tiatoa said.
But many games were created by the youth themselves, he said.
Not only would T&T's St Andrew St headquarters provide a safe space for youth, its close proximity to the bus hub would make it easily accessible as a destination for youth using public transport, he said.
"Down here, it's just to connect with one another," Mr Tiatoa said.
"If there's any baggage that they carry with them, we will connect with them at the milkshake bar and then we'll take everything upstairs from then on, whether it's working with their families or just them.
"And then we will connect them with networking systems that would help them to bring down their barriers, because that's our aim, to create future leaders."
