Youth

Wanaka police are planning to crack down on the illegal supply of alcohol to minors this weekend as senior pupils from Mount Aspiring College prepare to celebrate the end of school for the year.

Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan wants every young person seeking work in the district to have a job by March.

A youth project to "trigger the kid in us all" is being planned by three secondary school pupils in Oamaru.

Teenage runaways stole vehicles, petrol and even a donation box as part of a crime spree yesterday.

Dunedin police will soon have another tool to assist youth "showing signs of going off the rails" - a designated child offender case manager.

Five young people are being dealt with in the courts after a police operation targeted teenage drug dealers in Dunedin.

A recent spike in runaway incidents from Child Youth and Family (CYF) homes in Dunedin has kept police busy and forced CYF to bring in security guards and extra staff to help caregivers deal with errant teenagers.

The Otago Youth Adventure Trust and Milton Rotary Tramping Club was last night named Clutha's premier volunteer grouping of 2010.

New Zealand Defence Force personnel and the Otago Southland Regional Employer Support Council met in Dunedin yesterday to discuss getting young people who succeed in defence force youth programmes into meaningful employment.

New Zealand would benefit more from early intervention to help vulnerable young people and their families rather than by building more "Milton Hiltons", University of Otago Prof Richie Poulton said this week.

It has more than 350 teenagers, but the community of Fairfield has no support for youth, outside its primary school, and no way for them to feel a sense of belonging.