Rangatahi making a big splash!

7 May 2025

At Nuku Ora, we’re committed to increasing physical activity across our rohe (region), ensuring everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of being active. With declining participation rates, one of our priority groups is rangatahi (young people). Supporting and advocating for youth is a big part of our mahi, and their voice is key to this. The following story from Te Rauparaha Arena Aquatic Centre is a fantastic example of how youth voice can be incorporated into decision making and facility planning.

‘Popping a manu’ is a popular activity among Porirua youth, but having no designated space to do so was creating conflict. Lifeguards and other pool-goers grew frustrated by manu splashes disrupting shared areas of the pool. However, rather than discouraging the activity that kept them engaged at the pool, Te Rauparaha Arena sought a solution.

Because this was an issue for rangatahi, gathering their voice was crucial to establishing an appropriate solution. Te Rauparaha Arena staff engaged them about manus directly, asking questions like “How high do you think you can jump?’ and ‘How deep?”. Using this insight, they designed and built a platform that met their needs. By involving rangatahi in the process, the staff built trust and earned respect, ensuring the manu board would be well used and valued by the community.

During this process, Te Rauparaha Arena also optimised the existing pool network to identify the gaps and determine the best approach to accommodate rangatahi. Stakeholders and similar facilities were consulted to establish what the competitive diving guidelines were, ensuring manu jumps could be safely incorporated into the space. By leveraging the wider pool network, Te Rauparaha Arena demonstrated the benefits of a connected regional network in action.

The purpose-built movable manu board was a huge success! Regular manu competitions were introduced, fostering community development and strengthening connections. The initiative was positively received by stakeholders, rangatahi, staff and the wider pool community.

The platform provides a safe place for young people to have fun and enjoy a popular form of physical activity, while allowing staff to set up or pack down the platform as needed. Rangatahi were excited to finally have a space they were allowed to manu and, as a result, treated it with respect. The wider pool network also benefited, as this age group gained a space in the rohe to thrive. 

This is a fantastic example of how facilities can easily incorporate rangatahi voice into their decision making, for a rewarding outcome.

If you have a space or place that could benefit from some guidance to boost community impact, consider these questions for reflection:

1. Network approach - where does your facility and provisions fit within the wider picture of similar facilities across Wellington? (e.g Arena Aquatic relationship with H20 Xtream within the pools network)
2. Is youth voice incorporated in the design and programming of your facilities? Why/Why Not?
3. Consider how you can use your council strategy to advocate for the value of youth-led facility design?
4. In this example, ‘rangatahi wellbeing’ is a strategic priority for Porirua City Council, which facility staff aligned the project to, gaining the mayor’s endorsement.
5. What areas in your space could do with a refresh to make them more welcoming or better utilised?
6. Which different groups of users could be engaged to co-design these changes?

To learn more about our Spaces and Places mahi, or if you have an example of good engagement with rangatahi in facility planning, click here to connect with our Spaces and Places Lead, Lily Joiner.

For more resources, click here: Spaces & Places Support | Nuku Ora