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Meet the family: Grace Blummont, Youth Work Intern

Grace Blummont has been with Zeal Hawke’s bay for the last few years. Starting as a volunteer, she joined the crew as a youth intern last year. We caught up with her to see how things are popping off in the Bay!

How did you first get involved with Zeal?

I first got involved in Zeal through the Youth Council of Napier in 2015. We teamed up with Zeal Hawke’s Bay for different Youth Events through out the year, I fell in love with what they were doing and began volunteering as often as I could. I couldn’t get enough of Zeal’s vision, and in 2017, I started as an intern studying a Diploma in Youth Work with Praxis.

What does your typical day at Zeal look like?

Every day at Zeal is so different. We don’t have a “youth centre” in Hawke’s Bay, so we are pretty mobile in what we do. Some days I’ll be working on my computer making sure event plans are running smoothly and completing everyone’s favourite Health and Safety forms. Other days, I’m out and about meeting with young people, co-ordinating Programmes or hanging out with youth and and artists at events.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get in to youth work?

If this is something you are passionate about, hang out with some other youth workers and see what they do. There are many different areas of youth work, so just find the one that makes you want to get up every morning and go for gold!

What do you fill your time with outside of Zeal?

In my free time, I love scuba diving and swimming. I also have 2 young nieces so I spend as much time as possible with my family and friends. I love a good adventure so if I’m not with my family I can normally be found outdoors or in the water.

What are some great memories you have from your time at Zeal?

My time at Zeal has been filled with awesome memories and I’ve only been here for a few years! We’ve been on different road trips, had heaps of different events but some of my absolute fav moments is when the Zeal staff have Hui and we get to hang out and see what each centre is up to. And I absolutely love when a young person finds their belonging in Zeal.

What has been your favorite event with HB so far?

My favourite event so far is probably the Colour Run, where our young people had a huge part in the planning and running of the event. We sold out of 800 tickets and raised money for Live for Tomorrow. It was so awesome because even though we are a youth organisation, the whole community got behind the event to support this amazing cause.

What are your hopes for Zeal Hawke’s Bay going forward?

I can’t wait to see what we can do going forward and how we can continue to empower young people through creativity. We have heaps of awesome plans in the pipeline but you’ll have to stay tuned to see!