Taking a blow on the chin
A youth organisation has turned to beard-growing to help them get a central city base.
Zeal Taranaki has long been raising money to develop a youth hub in the New Plymouth CBD but were dealt a blow when their one-off $50,000 New Plymouth District Council grant for the project was canned.
The council removed the grant after it rejigged its proposed annual plan in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Funding of $100,000 a year for three years was previously approved by the council and that has not been changed, with the agreement in its second year. Zeal Taranaki manager Luke Galley said it was devastating to lose the $50,000 for the base.
‘‘There isn’t a safe space for our young people in New Plymouth,’’ he said.
‘‘For some school doesn’t work – it just doesn’t fit their personality. For others, they don’t have a safe space to go home to in the evening.’’
Galley, along with four volunteers, started a beard growing challenge when the country went into level 4 in March.
But seeing young people struggle through lockdown, they decided to use it as a fundraiser. They are not going to shave until they raise $25,000.
Galley said Zeal had been offered a good deal on the former Mayfair site, and they needed the money to make it happen.
The larger multipurpose youth space would allow Zeal to run regular large-scale alcohol and drug free events, such as gigs, raves and dance battles, as well as expanding creative programmes to include things like barista training and graphic design.
It would also be a base for their programmes of hip hop, photography, cooking and music.
New Plymouth District councillor Stacey Hitchcock said it was disappointing to have to cut Zeal’s extra funding, but understandable in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘‘We still had to reduce rates, so some things became collateral damage.’’ But Zeal remained a strategic partner of NPDC, and just because the extra funding was dropped, ‘‘doesn’t mean the vision and what we want to achieve stops,’’ she said.