Youth Education Service Programme Review
Date Published:
April 2012
The New Zealand Police Strategic Plan 2011 – 2015 determines the role of Youth Education Services (YES) as one of the many New Zealand Police services working within the Police's vision of Safer Communities Together. The mission articulated through the strategy is to direct Police to work in partnership with communities to prevent crime and road trauma, enhance public safety and maintain public order.
This review concludes that YES has an important role in creating the understanding that Police is an integral part of New Zealand society. The YES service has provided a wide range of printed education resources and education services since 1980 and it has helped Police to provide a presence for children and young people and a reassurance that policing involves both a preventative (educative) as well as an enforcement approach to building a safer community.
However, the findings demonstrate clear gaps in the ability of YES to be fully effective as an educative process for improving the lives of children and young people and assisting in their learning, while at the same time meeting the Police's aims of reducing crash and crime and enhancing community reassurance.