Our advocacy journey started in our Year 13 Sociology classroom. Our first assessment for the year was the Level 3 Sociology Standard, 91559: Examine personal involvement in a social action(s) that aims to influence policy change.
For this assessment, we decided to build on Paul’s established passion and support for New Zealand’s para athletes and Paralympics New Zealand, and we have been advocating for better, more equitable coverage and representation of our para athletes, and for Paralympics New Zealand to be afforded the same protections as other major sporting events and organisations.
We started gathering a range of perspectives on this issue from: politicians from both the Government and the opposition parties; disability sport organisations; para athletes; national sport organisations e.g. Cycling NZ; Equestrian NZ and Snow Sports NZ; our local regional and city councils, as well as our Hillcrest High peers.
We have come to realise that we have joined a group of individuals and organisations who have been fighting for equity for our para athletes, and who have been advocating for the changes we wish to see made, for many years. As a group, we have become very invested in seeing this through, and we have gone well beyond the classroom learning for this assessment. We were invited to go to Wellington to meet with a range of MPs, local MPs that we had already interviewed, but also MPs are spokespeople for either media and communication, disability issues or sport and recreation. We organised the trip ourselves, and with the support of our families, friends and the school, embarked on a fundraising mission to fund the trip. Thanks to the generosity of all those who supported our Bake Sale day, our Givealittle page and our official parliamentary petition which we presented on the forecourt of Parliament yesterday morning. During our time in Wellington, we also met with the Legislative Counsel (a parliamentary lawyer) and a senior policy advisor. We also attended a Select Committee hearing, which gave us a better idea of how we will do our presentations when our petition reaches the time for oral submissions. We were also told that our proposed changes will be drafted up by MPs who will then investigate our changes further to start the Member’s Bill process.
Our advocacy journey has taught us a lot, none the least of which, is that our campaign for equity will not end with our trip to Wellington. We will continue our involvement in raising para sport awareness and advocacy well into the future. We would also appreciate you following our social media pages as we would love to hear what you think about what we are trying to achieve. The links are at the bottom of this page.
We are excited and grateful for the opportunities that this journey has presented us with, and we look forward to what is still to come!
