Building and sustaining quality relationships as a foundation to belonging

Opening lines of communication with rangatahi

• Inform them of the project plan and any changes
• Encourage rangatahi to update the group on any changes or developments in the work streams they are progressing
• Hold events or workshops to generate or refine detailed ideas or review examples together

Inviting a broader group of rangatahi in the community to validate different design concepts for the space or aspects of an active recreation programme

• When sending out surveys that are designed to better understand the needs of rangatahi, include the option to be invited to validate designs

Creating safe spaces where young people feel accepted, included, and valued

Introducing new people who have joined

• Introduce yourself again to the new joiners in the group and go around the room, so rangatahi who are part of the group can introduce themselves and talk about the role they have taken on as a part of the project

Acknowledging the contributions of those who are taking on additional responsibility

• When rangatahi update you on their progress, or create connections to more rangatahi, acknowledge them for their contributions by talking about the impact this has had on the project; creating a raffle where there is an entry for each contribution to the project; giving spot prizes at the start of every in-person meetup to those who have contributed the most

Recognising when focus is being lost

• If rangatahi start losing interest in co-design activities, pause the activity to play a game or have a break to bring the focus back to the group

Giving young people space to assume agency and take responsibility

Supporting young people to test designs with their peers

• Create a survey to understand the needs of a wider group of rangatahi who are intended to be the participants of an active recreation programme or users of a space
• Support rangatahi to ask their peers for feedback which help you to hear from a broader audience

Encouraging the use of visual tools

• These can help rangatahi to articulate their thoughts and visions, especially for visual learners and communicators for example, PowerPoint, Miro, drawing

Empowering young people with useful, timely, and meaningful information

Keeping rangatahi informed

• Provide rangatahi with a clear programme plan and key milestones of the project
• If there are any changes, update the support team via their online channels
• Ask the support team what their preferred channels of communication are for example, Instagram, WhatsApp, Discord
• Share with them reasons why any ideas are not being implemented so they can learn through the process