.png)
.webp)
Quirky Kid joined the 2010 INVOLVE national youth health and development conference in Auckland, presenting its early therapeutic resources to professionals working with young people across Aotearoa New Zealand.
INVOLVE 2010 ran from 17 to 19 November at Auckland’s Aotea Centre under the theme Connect: Together we are stronger.
The official history of INVOLVE records the 2010 event as part of a national conference series originally organised by New Zealand Aotearoa Adolescent Health and Development, with support from the Ministry of Youth Development, the National Youth Workers Network and the Mental Health Commission.
Connecting with the New Zealand youth sector
The conference brought together people working across youth health, development, education and community services. For Quirky Kid, it created an early opportunity to learn from New Zealand practice while introducing psychology resources developed through work with children and families in Australia.
Quirky Kid displayed its therapeutic resources during the conference, giving practitioners an opportunity to see and discuss tools designed to support communication, emotional understanding and social development.
An early international publishing step
The Auckland appearance came at a formative stage in Quirky Kid’s publishing history. The organisation had only recently begun turning tools developed through clinical practice into resources that could be used by parents, educators and professionals outside its own clinics.
Just Like When Cards had become Quirky Kid’s first published therapeutic resource in 2009. INVOLVE provided one of the early international settings in which this emerging resource range could be shared directly with professionals.
Why INVOLVE mattered
INVOLVE remains Aotearoa New Zealand’s national conference for youth health and development. Its current history describes the 2010 conference as the final event in the original 2002–2010 biennial series before the conference returned in 2018.
For Quirky Kid, participation forms part of an early period of international professional exchange that later expanded through publishing fairs, education conferences and partnerships across several countries.
