RESEARCH
A new report emphasises that as the working lives of young people become more casualised and insecure, they will ...
POLICY
State representatives from the National Youth Coalition for Housing (NYCH) met on 25 March and identified five key areas ...
PRACTICE
'Stories from the inside' is a film made for educators, youth workers and legal practitioners to show to the ...
Unbelievably, we are already one-third of the way through the year, and many important markers in the youth sector year have already been reached, one of them being the annual National Youth Awards. Please take the time to look at the outstanding and inspirational achievements of the young people who were recognised at the National Youth Awards ceremony in Brisbane on 10 April (see ‘Engagement and opportunity’).
Another important marker is the annual Mission Australia Youth Survey; once again it is time for young people (aged 15 to 19) to let their voices be heard; the survey results are used to inform the deliberations of governments, policymakers and community organisations, so it’s important to encourage all the young people you work with or for to take part (see ‘Youth work & the sector’).
This past month ReachOut has been running an awareness campaign called ‘There’s Life After Bad Moves’, which highlighted for young people that it’s perfectly OK to make mistakes in life, and not to be overly disheartened or lose confidence if you’ve stuffed up. Everybody does it and it’s part of life’s big learning curve.
The fact that ReachOut has run this campaign is an indication of the pressures that young people are under, whether it be to perform academically, to find work, to find affordable accommodation, to succeed socially, to survive family life, to achieve in every sphere. The pressures can sometimes seem relentless. The recently released Kids Helpline report, Insights into Australian young people, reflects these pressures; there has been a 15% increase in demand for its services since 2012, and the demand seems to keep on rising (see ‘Wellbeing’).
Many of the stories in this month’s YFX also reflect the pressures young people are under, from transitioning successfully into work, to bullying on the sports field, to coping with parents who have mental health issues. But it is important never to lose sight of the fact that almost all young people strive to succeed despite all these pressures. In an important report just to hand, Voices of the vulnerable published by Mission Australia using data from its 2014 Youth Survey, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds reveal the high value they place on getting work. Mission Australia CEO Catherine Yeomans said this evidence ‘flies in the face of that very simplistic view of the world – that unemployed young people are lazy and feckless job snobs. What our report shows is that it’s not the will that is lacking, but quite often, the way’. We will bring you a longer story about this report next month, but in the meantime, access the report from the Mission Australia website.
Two really positive initiatives that we wanted to emphasise this month are the work of Studio G and the VACC Automotive Industry Donation Program.
Studio G, which is featured in The Sector, is an organisation that works to provide young people with high functioning autism with a pathway into the workplace in the media industry. Since its establishment last year, it has become one of Autism Queensland’s core projects and plans to expand. It is a place full of success stories.
The VACC program in Victoria brings together automotive industry suppliers with VET institutions and schools to provide apprentices with the vehicles, components and parts they need to enable apprentices to have the best possible training. The initiative has been described as ‘an example of an industry-led initiative for a community outcome’ with an outstanding spirit of cooperation (see ‘Transition & work’).
We know that there are always more stories and great initiatives out there than we can ever cover, and that space does not allow many pertinent academic research papers into youth issues to be covered in YFX. If you are keen to access research into youth issues, one very useful place to find it is the Academic Journals page of the youthpolicy.org website. Here you will find a well laid-out overview of most of the world’s known journals on youth issues ranging from juvenile justice, to theatre, to LBGT issues. Around 50 journals are listed.
Finally, we are excited to announce that ACYS has a new director: Dr Jen Couch, a senior lecturer in youth work at the Australian Catholic University, who has a strong background in working with young people in the areas of marginalisation, homelessness and refugee settlement. Read more about her below.
We hope this issue of YFX will enhance your work with young people, and we look forward to bringing you more from the youth sector in the post-Budget climate.
Happy reading!
After a pleasing response to our call for expressions of interest in the position earlier this year, we are thrilled to announce Dr Jen Couch as the new ACYS Director.
Dr Couch is a senior lecturer in youth work at the Australian Catholic University (ACU). She has established a national reputation for her work in the area of refugee young people and resettlement, and is one of the few academics to undertake research on young people from refugee backgrounds and homelessness. Before beginning at ACU 10 years ago, she worked extensively in the youth and community sectors in Australia and South Asia.
She has worked with, and on behalf of, young people in the areas of refugee settlement, displacement, homelessness, rights and participation, torture and trauma, and capacity building. Dr Couch has published widely in the area of young people and marginalisation and is particularly interested in working in hopeful and positive ways to change social inequalities and exclusion.
Dr Couch has a longstanding relationship with ACYS as a contributor and peer reviewer to the Youth Studies Australia journal, and we look forward to working with her in her new capacity as Director as we continue enhancing our services to support the development of engaged and resilient young people in Australia.
The ACYS Outcomes Framework has been developed to link what we do with specific impacts within youth policy, research and practice. Those of you who completed our recent ACYS stakeholders’ survey have helped us understand and measure whether our products and services are delivering what you need and whether they are helping make the impacts within your work. It’s been great to hear about some of the ways in which we have helped you to make a difference within the youth sector.
You can read about the results from the survey and see examples of how others have used ACYS materials to inform their work on the ACYS website. If you would like to tell us about any other impacts we’ve had within your work, we’d love to hear about them. Please feel free to contact Marta Guerra or submit your examples through the ACYS website.
Thank you to Sue Dilley and Kate Gross for editorial input to this issue of YFX. Links were checked and correct at the time of publishing. Please report errors to the editor, Caroline Mordaunt.
Please send any contributions for consideration for inclusion in the next issue of YFX to [email protected]
7–8 May
This national conference aims to develop support for leading edge youth mental health programs within the school system.