In 1989 a group of young people established Auckland Lesbian and Gay Youth (ALGY), a support network for queer youth. ALGY was formed as part of the Isherwood Trust (the former Pride Centre) and was funded by the Trust to provide support for queer youth through social group and events. ALGY also started an education programme, running workshops in schools.
In 1995 ALGY became an incorporated society and was renamed Rainbow Youth. That same year Rainbow Youth shifted and started sharing premises with YouthLine in Ponsonby. In 2001, with funding from the Methodist Mission Northern and Child, Youth & Family, Rainbow Youth shifted again, this time to Mt Eden, where we were able to open the first safe space for queer youth in Auckland.
The first national Queer Youth Hui was run in late 2003, organised by OutThere . Forty young people from across Aotearoa came together to connect and share.
In late 2008 Rainbow Youth appointed its first Executive Director, Tom Hamilton. It’s Tom’s job to manage the Rainbow Youth staff, expand the services provided, and maintain our presence in the queer community. In 2009 Rainbow Youth received a major financial and media boost when Tamati Coffey, the winner of TVNZ’s Dancing with the Stars programme, selected us as his charity.
2009 was Rainbow Youth’s 20th anniversary. Full of many achievements. First up, we were the chosen charity for the Dancing With The Stars NZ contenders Tamati Coffey & Samantha Hitchcock, thanks to the support of our rainbow community they consequently won, which mean we received a major financial windfall and not to mention media boost.
We were also the chosen charity for the transtasman 24 hour website building competition – Fullcode Press that took place in Sydney Australia. Clint & Daniel, our two board members and resident geeks at the time, represented us and supported the Code Blacks (NZ team) in the nonstop no-sleep geekathalon. The NZ team won the competition, and we received a whole new website, built from scratch, with an estimated total man hour value of around $20,000 plus 2 years free hosting.
2010 saw further achievements, with three of our RY family being nominated for their efforts, by the Auckland GLBT community. Our Executive Director – Thomas Hamilton, took out Transperson of the Year and Supreme Achievement Award titles and our Vice Chair Clint Woolly, took out Young Person of the Year, with our Chairperson Toni Reid also nominated in this category.
This year also saw the initiation of our National Queer Youth Network strategy.
Today, Rainbow Youth is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest queer youth organisation. We are run by youth, for youth, and have a board made up of people under the age of 28. We are a not-for-profit, incorporated society and registered charity.