The Spreydon Youth Community Trust (SYC) was established in 1997. Spreydon Youth Community Trust is recognised as a well established and effective work with mainstream youth in our city.
Experienced in creating teams of volunteers, we now have approximately sixty trained youth leaders regularly impacting hundreds of young people in a diverse range groups, schools, events and other initiatives such as our touch rugby module.

We have been committed to building friendships with young people and being positive role-models to them for over a decade, consequently we have seen the development of a community that fosters healthy and balanced lives. The Christian principles that are our foundation have also built a solid platform to engage and deal with the youth issues we encounter. By providing the necessary skills and information, and most importantly the right relationships as good examples, we often see young people enjoy their teenage years, achieve all they can and avoid some of life’s pitfalls.

Here are our wonderful Trustees...


Richard Hellewell
Originally from Southland, Richard has been involved with SYC since 1992.
His roles have included, working with the 13 and 14 year olds for 7 years, then after a brief time in the UK returned to be involved with the 16 to 17 year olds and progressed with them for a further 2 years, as young adults.
During this time he joined the board of trustees with the responsibility of overseeing maintenance on the SYC house and vehicles.
Outside SYC, he has worked predominantly in the cable manufacturing industry as a project engineer, but recently, took time out to build their current house.
He has just celebrated his 11th wedding anniversary with his wife Sandra.
Richard says “It has been a real privilege to be involved in the lives of the young people, building relationships and encouraging them as lifelong followers of Jesus.”
  


Simon Riddell
Simon is married Nicola. He works with his Dad and helps manage the running of a couple of family business’s which keeps him pretty busy.
Simon’s family has been a part of Spreydon Baptist since 1994. Si has been an ‘SYCer’, has moved up through the ranks and has effectively never left as he moved straight into the leadership team the year after graduating SYC.
Si says “I have been leading young people for 6 years and I still really enjoy it!  I love knowing both the inner and outer workings of SYC. I get to see not only how SYC operates from a practical level through the work of the trust but I’m able to imput directly in to young peoples lives too, which is very rewarding. When my youth group kids graduate and I eventually leave leadership, I love the fact that I could still contribute to and be a part of SYC’s journey through my role as a trustee.”

Amanda Parfitt
Amanda started as volunteer youth leader in 1994 and has since done a total of 9.5 years youth leadership with SYC (until end 2006). She has also done 3 years youth leadership overseas. Amanda and her husband have also led Young Adults (ex-SYC!) groups from 2004-2009.
Amanda looks out for the Kahukura Youth Pastors and seeks to assist them in achieving their vision for youth in Cashmere wherever she can. Amanda is Currently responsible for implementing governance policies and procedures within the trust.
Amanda Graduated from Canterbury University with Chemical and Process Engineering Degree  in 1996. She went on to  Work for a Chemical Manufacturing Company as Project Engineer (1997-98) then Production Manager (1998-2002)
Amanda is Married with 3 kids she is a Member of SBC & Barrington Neighbourhood Community.
Amanda says “I'm passionate about youth, helping them through the tough years and helping them discover Jesus and develop a meaningful lifelong relationship with Him”.
 

Andy Stocks
Andrea Stocks has been involved with Spreydon Youth Community (SYC)  for  over 15 years. 7  years as a youth group leader and since then she has been a trustee. Before her involvement in SYC, Andy was a Youth Leader in Papakura.
Andy have been invloved with the 24-7 YouthWork programme since its conception.
Andy has been married for 10 years and has 4 very active children.She owns several business with her  husband and his family, and actively works in these.
Andy say “She is passionate about the young people of New Zealand and what Spreydon Youth Community is doing for young people in their local communities”.
 

Jeff Gardiner
Jeff is marrie d to Denise and they have four adult sons.
Getting involved with SYC started with his sons at going to youth group. Observing the total commitment and passion of the leaders lead him to become involved. In a parental role at first and then being invited onto the Trust, he  took up the Chairmans role last year.
Jeff says “Choices young people make help shape their future - I see SYC helping to equip them to make good choices”.

 

Randal Jordan
Randal has been a trustee of the SYC Trust since 2004, and was a volunteer youth leader for 9 years before that.
Randal says: "I really want to help support young people through their journey to adulthood and finding where they fit in the world.  I want to help equip young people to understand the world and t he pressures they face, so that they can make good decisions for their future."
Randal works as the operations manager for Pathway Engineering Group which is a charitable company and is involved in helping people find a pathway back into mainstream society through a number of business and social activities.
Randal is married to Hilary and they have 2 daughters.  The family are active members of Spreydon Baptist Church.
 

Neil Weston
Neil is married to Glenda, and is now "semi retired" after working in business both here in Christchurch and overseas in Africa and Papua New Guinea.
SYC has had a huge influence in Neil’s families life, Their three children, all now married, participated fully in SYC activities both as recipients and later as leaders.
As a parent Neil can testify  what a difference  the total commitment and passion of SYC leaders can make to young people and a family unit.
Neil says "As a trustee I value the opportunity of contributing to the current and future SYC work and the impact our dedicated leaders are having in the community"
 


Duane Major
Duane Major is a pastor at Spreydon Baptist Church and the founder and coordinator of 24-7 YouthWork. Duane became a volunteer youth leader 20 years ago  and in the late 1990’s was drawn out of teaching chemistry to paid youth work with the Spreydon Youth Community. “Youth is a fantastic stage of life, and youth workers can be hugely influential during this time,” Duane says. “I saw it as an opportunity to make a real difference.”
Over the years he has combined his love of sport and the outdoors with his work with young people. Duane played many years with his rugby club Burnside and went on to play for Canterbury and thanks to his Canadian roots managed to keep up his local commitments whilst spending three years playing international rugby including the World Cup in 1999.  He was obviously very single!
Duane enjoys working with “mainstream youth”—young people of all ages and backgrounds—and believes the community has a big part to play in ensuring all young people grow into well-rounded adults.
Duane lives in Spreydon with his wife, Ruth and their 4 young children and serves West Spreydon School on the Board of Trustees and the Pool Committee.