Tauranga City Council and Merivale Community Centre are the recipients of $100,000 from the Ministry of Youth Development for the ‘Youth Space Project' initiative.

Graham Cameron says receiving $108,000 from the government for a youth leadership programme is a great win for the community.

The $108,000 is going towards the initiatives and activities required to build and develop leadership skills among a group of young people, who will then form the first board of the Youth Space and ultimately run and manage the project themselves.

At this stage, there are 15 young people involved in the project – coming from across Tauranga but in particular from Tauranga south.

Merivale Community Centre manager Graham Cameron says receiving this funding is a great success.

'We have a really enthusiastic and excited group of young people already who want to be involved and take on the leadership role,” says Graham.

'What's great about this project is that so many people will benefit.

'On the one hand we have the opportunity to build the skills of our future leaders and then on the other, we get to use these skills to help other young ‘at risk' people in the community.

'Now that we have the base funding secured, we just want to get into it and it's great that we can lead the way and set a good example for other youth-led community projects in Tauranga.”

Although the project will initially be part of the Merivale Community Centre, it is expected that in the long term, it will be a stand alone organisation.

The Ministry of Youth Development Partnership Fund is an annual programme that is open to all councils for projects that aim to improve outcomes for young people through effective youth development practice.