A Waikato University student says she hopes her research into how young people helped clean up after the Rena oil spill will help local authorities better use Generation Y volunteers in future.
Sarah Lockwood was a volunteer when the container ship ran aground off the Bay of Plenty coast two years ago, spilling tonnes of oil into the sea.
Ms Lockwood, who has won a Fulbright travel award for her research, says there was a lack of communication and understanding between officials and youth volunteers after the spill, and a lot of them ended up forming their own satellite groups.
She says the ability of groups like the Christchurch Student Volunteer Army and the group of 700 Bay of Plenty Polytechnic students who helped after the spill shows the value of Gen Y assistance in times of crisis.
Generation Y is generally understood to be the generation born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, with some variation between countries.
