What makes a New Zealand Conservation Corps project successful

Abstract

The New Zealand Conservation Corps is a youth development programme that aims to facilitate the development of young people by involving them in education, challenging recreation and conservation work. The Programme has been operating since 1989 and currently caters for around fourteen hundred young New Zealanders each year. It receives forty percent of its funding from central government and the rest from local communities. The programme is successful in terms of its employment outcomes for participants and in terms of the value of the work that is undertaken in communities. There is no agreed definition of the term youth development. However, there is considerable agreement about the nature of the processes that promote social and cognitive competence in young people. Best practice implementation of New Zealand Conservation Corps projects is consistent with these processes. This conclusion was reached on the basis of a multi-method research strategy that was undertaken to identify key factors in the achievement of successful programme outcomes.