Dujon Cullingford

Dujon is a youth and community development expert, working in social innovation and regional development to better community outcomes. Dujon’s work includes many forms of engagement, events, innovation and teamwork. 

He is a Community Advisor for Hamilton City Council where he runs point for the local youth sector - providing leadership and support to the youth sector, while working across several sectors to enhance youth development. 

He is currently on secondment to the social innovation team at Wise Group where he is Engagement and Codesign lead for a new youth facility in Hamilton. A partnership between Wise Group and local rangatahi is seeing breakthrough work in inter-sector development. Between 2002 and 2017, Dujon held roles as an event manager, school teacher, youth educator, performing artist, arts practitioner and community volunteer. 

Dujon has worked at Zeal and Te Ahurei a Rangatahi, two leading local youth organisations. As a Youth Events Manager for Zeal Hamilton he ran regular youth gatherings utilising the arts, hip hop culture and event management. 

Between 2013 and 2015 Dujon was a Music, Dance and Drama Teacher at Hamilton Junior High School, teaching several hundred students from seven schools each year. In the arts, he has represented New Zealand in dance and completed well over 1000 performances around the world. As a strong arts advocate, he is passionate about creating platforms to showcase local talent. 

He is currently a Masters student at Wintec, studying a PostGrad in Innovation, examining local youth development through a transdisciplinary approach to create new solutions and realise local aspirations. 

Extra-curricular work includes Aotearoa New Zealand Olympic Breakdance development, New Zealand 60-70's music archiving, running an annual vintage market at Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival and most importantly, being a Dad and husband.