Ministry of Social Development

Topic : Action on Youth Gangs - A Whole-of-Government Approach

Summary

This workshop will highlight the coordinated government response to a growing youth gang crisis - when 'doing nothing' was simply not an option.

The case study will discuss events that led up to the co-ordinated action on youth gangs, and show what excellent state services look like when addressing complex social issues. It will also demonstrate how as a state sector:

• we had to design a rapid response with partial information
• we had no initial certainty about what would work
• research and intervention at multiple levels needed to take place concurrently
• success was likely to be partial.

This is a joint Ministry of Social Development and NZ Police presentation. It also includes the voices and perspectives of youth gang members themselves.