Youthline Launched in the Cook Islands
The shrill voices of hundreds of students filled the TSA stadium on Tuesday morning as numbers of students from Tereora College, Nukutere College, Titikaveka College, Imanuela Akateimia and Papaaroa attended the official launch of the free Youth Helpline phone counseling service.
This initiative followed a survey and a highly responsive youth forum. The launching of the Youth Helpline is a culmination of months of hard work from The Steering Group who kicked off the series of youth involvements to dissect and address the issues pertaining to youth with a particular focus on the recent spate of youth suicide in the Cook Islands.
Youth Helpline is a New Zealand based free phone counseling service that is contactable at any time. It offers a range of trained professionals and volunteers to receive the phone calls from the Cook Islands and respond accordingly. The 0800HELP Youth Helpline’s introduction here in the Cook Islands marks the first time that Youthline NZ has provided its services outside of New Zealand and has been sponsored by Telecom Cook Islands.
Among the attending participants were Minister Hon Mark Brown who spoke at length about his youth reiterating the importance to “choose life” and Minister Hon Teina Bishop, Education Secretary Sharyn Paio, New Zealand RnB artist and Youthline Ambassador Pieter T who also shared a candid shot of his youth growing up in a gang related New Zealand and his personal experiences of trauma and Youthline CEO Stephen Bell speaking on the services and availability of the Youth Helpline now being offered here in the Cook Islands. While “talk about it” may indeed be the tag line attached to the Youth Helpline CEO Bell suggested that its meaning extended much further encouraging peers to talk and share amongst themselves and trusted persons, their problems. -Maria Tanner

Herald Issue 608 21 March
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