Nikki Kaye The Government has announced it will make $55,000 in funding available through the Ministry of Youth Development to help strengthen services available to lgbti youth. The election year pledge has come from Auckland Central MP and Minister of Youth Affairs Nikki Kaye, who says there are a number of organisations around New Zealand that have been delivering health and services to lgbti youth, but they need to be able to better co-ordinate a plan to address issues like bullying and suicide. “Research shows that young people from the lgbti community face higher rates of bullying, and are more likely to have attempted suicide than other youth," Kaye says. “This funding will support a range of lgbti organisations to develop a plan to better address these issues. The plan will also provide a view on how to ensure services are provided to young people in a sustainable way. “I also want to encourage and support better access for lgbti youth to development and leadership opportunities." Kaye says the Ministry of Youth development will work with key youth organisations to ensure everyone who wants to make a contribution to improving service accessibility and effectiveness has the opportunity to do so. She says it will also work work with the University of Auckland to analyse lgbti information obtained from Youth '12, and create a report for researchers, interested groups and government agencies to use for planning and service development purposes.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 7th February 2014 - 4:07pm