Some at-risk teenagers have told a focus group they avoid Dunedin’s student quarter because of fears of violence.
However, a campus cop says there is no safer university in New Zealand.
For the past three years, the South Dunedin Social Sector Trial, known as Base, has been working to improve outcomes for young people.
Base has developed initiatives focused on increasing youth participation in education, training and employment; building resilience among young people; and preventing youth offending and alcohol and drug use.
Last week, Base released "Collaborating for Youth Success" — a report detailing the shift to community-led, collaborative approaches to help Dunedin’s at-risk youth.
The report summarises a scoping project in which 45 stakeholder groups were interviewed and focus groups held with young people between March and June this year.
A group of 15 youths, all under 20, were interviewed in April and May this year.
The youths were connected to the Dunedin Training Centre or the Otago Youth Wellness Trust.
The group raised safety as a "top concern" for young people in Dunedin, especially in the student quarter.
One youth said they would not walk around "studentville" at night.
"The university students are yelling at me all the time. I’ve been jumped twice by students just walking down the street at night," the youth said.
A young female said one of their friends had been raped in the student quarter.
"As a girl, I would never walk around downtown or near the university at night."
One youth wanted Dunedin to be a safer place to live and the student quarter needed to be promoted as an area to avoid.
"We avoid it every chance we can because it is so violent down there," two young males said.
Senior Constable John Woodhouse, of the University of Otago campus, said he believed the student quarter in Dunedin was safer than any other campus in New Zealand.
The university invested millions of dollars to keep students safe in Dunedin using initiatives such as Campus Watch, whose officers patrolled the student quarter every day of the year, 24 hours a day.
The university was also investigating increasing the number of surveillance cameras in the area, he said.
No-one had reported a rape in the student quarter in his time on campus, Snr Const Woodhouse said.
However, there had been consensual issues after alcohol had been consumed.
The youths interviewed also expressed concerns about the lack of interaction with counsellors at schools.
"I think there is a big issue with the school counsellors. Like, every school has one, right? But no-one knows how to get to them," a youth said.
Another talked about their anger being out of control and needing to talk to a counsellor about it.
"I didn’t want to ask my mates where the school counsellor was because that would be embarrassing. They should really come to every class to introduce themselves and tell us how to find them," a youth said.
Dunedin Secondary Schools’ partnership manager Gordon Wilson said counsellors were not mandatory in schools but every school in Dunedin had one.
Counsellors were a part of a school’s "extensive" pastoral care team, which included school deans, who every pupil would have a connection with.
The youths interviewed were pupils on the rolls of the school system but attending an alternative education programme which had been deemed more suitable for them, Mr Wilson said.
The criticisms were the views of a minority of pupils, he said.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull, chairman of the Social Sector Trial Advisory Group, said the concerns raised about safety in the city were "one small, albeit important to some people, aspect of the report".
"The main purpose of this work is to move to a community-led, collaborative model which will result in better outcomes for youth and their whanau in a range of areas and to help ensure they have the opportunity to reach their full potential."
Mr Cull believed Dunedin was a safe community but when alcohol and a small minority of people, not necessarily students, mixed, it created safety concerns, particularly in North Dunedin.
A range of agencies, including the Dunedin City Council, Otago Polytechnic, university, police and health sector had been "working hard" to curb disorderly behaviour, minimise alcohol-related harm and keep people in the North Dunedin area safe.
Building relationships with young people was an important step in identifying barriers and finding solutions, Mr Cull said.
