Zeal uses the creative arts as its main medium for youth development in both of its youth centres. The arts have a timeless gift that ensures their relevance to every generation. Regardless of the decade you grow up in you remember the music that moved you, the art that spoke to you, the dance genre that grooved you and the bands that put into words what you were thinking.

For Zeal, harnessing the arts as a youth development pathway is where our expertise is growing. This means more grass-root opportunities for teenage musicians, dancers, photographers and artists to hone their skill when opportunities are slim elsewhere.

Key areas of focus in the future will be the development of short term reproducible workshops that teach young people everything from event management and event photography, through to recording an EP and producing a music video. These workshops are not merely designed to give young people a skill. They are also written to help the development of the young person’s resilience and maturity as significant participants in their wider community.

Some big opportunities Zeal is currently considering are:

1: A third Zeal youth facility and team of youth workers based in Hamilton

2: A youth run radio station at Zeal Auckland

3: An annual youth barista championship held at Zeal Wellington

Innovation in arts based youth development is a daily and weekly reality at Zeal. It continues to push our team of passionate, young and experienced youth workers to perfect current programmes and initiate new ones.

The team at Zeal sincerely hopes you can journey with us on this rollercoaster ride of youth culture to build stronger young people with world class skills in the creative arts.