What are the employment issues of the young people in your community? Tu Kahikatea invites us to stand with and speak for our young people Those who are familiar with Tu Kahikatea Standing Tall (the framework for Catholic Youth Ministry in Aotearoa New Zealand) will know that one of the eight components of ministry to young people is Advocacy. We are called upon to examine how the decisions that we and others make are impacting on the poor, the vulnerable and those at risk. With respect to youth ministry we are asked to stand with and speak on behalf of our young people and their families on public issues such as education, housing and employment. We are also asked to empower our young people by giving them a voice and calling them to responsible participation in the life, mission and work of our Catholic faith community. The precariousness of employment for young people Earlier this year I attended the AUT Symposium on Precarious Work. The Symposium comprised a range of speakers from the UK, Canada, Australia and NZ speaking about the global challenge of precarious work. This includes those who don’t have work, those who need full-time work but can only find part-time employment, those having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, those being paid insufficient to actually make ends meet, those who have no job security, those who are being exploited with a loss of employment rights such as no maternity leave or having to work seven
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