Local council attempts to involve youth
Fri 05 November 2010
Karis Howard, Bachelor of Public Relations
Youth on the Sunshine Coast will have the opportunity to contribute to council decision-making from December, 2010, with the council’s new youth strategy.
The draft Sunshine Coast Youth Strategy (SCYS) outlined that it was simply a means for youth, aged 11-24, to voice their concerns to council and influence decisions regarding their future in the region.
Council said this will help it meet youth needs.
“Essentially, youth engagement provides young people with a platform to enhance their skills, build their competencies, and contribute to local government decision-making and ultimately assist in the development of policies, programs and services,” Council said in the draft SCYS document.
The draft also stated that it would promote valuable partnerships and mutual respect between local youth and council.
The SCYS followed months of engaging with over 2300 young people in the region, with their major concerns and aspirations for the Sunshine Coast provided the framework for the strategy.
To effectively engage with youth on the Sunshine Coast, and pioneer the youth strategy, the council developed a youth engagement program, titled Speak Up and Engage Youth.
This program involved conducting one of the region’s biggest youth surveys.
As part of the strategy, the Speak Up and Engage Youth team would continue to engage with young people across the coast.
The findings from the Sunny Coast Youth Survey 2010 revealed the major issues for youth on the Sunshine Coast were drugs and alcohol, crime and a lack in arts and cultural activities.
The majority of youth envisioned the future of the region to be more vibrant, friendly and harmonious.
Speak Up and Engage Youth representative Lisa Austin said the young people on the Sunshine Coast considered their future to be important, and wanted to maintain a strong sense of community.
Miss Austin said the Speak Up and Engage Youth program created “street” teams which used marketing and media, interpersonal and online communication methods to engage with youth.
“Our interpersonal engagement allowed our street teams to go out into the community and actually talk to the young people of the coast one-on-one,” Miss Austin said.
“Street teams were also spread to local ‘hang outs’ such as Kawana Shopping World and the Sunshine Plaza.”
Miss Austin said that, in an attempt to reach all types of young people, the team attended targeted events that supported the more disadvantaged youths.
“Part of our approach was to also work with flexi schools in the region, these are programs that service young people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, and young people from non-English speaking backgrounds,” Miss Austin said.
Council had also released a draft action plan which outlined steps that would be implemented over the next five years.
The actions had been divided across five principle areas to deal with the issues revealed by youth in the survey.
The five principles areas were youth voice and action, access and opportunity for all, speaking up for youth, working together and youth and community connections.
Some of the actions to be implemented immediately included developing a youth arts strategy to provide opportunities for young people, and create youth-friendly spaces in council libraries.
Local social work student Kris Fitzpatrick, 22, had gained specific skills throughout her degree to work with youth and disadvantaged/minority groups within the community.
While Miss Fitzpatrick believed that the action plan was taking thorough steps in the right direction, she wanted to see council follow through with creating some areas for youth to socialise so there was less loitering on public property.
“If young people have places to hang out with friends in a space that is valued and created by them, then they would have less need to gather in areas that seem to bother the older generation, for example the Sunshine Plaza,” Miss Fitzpatrick said.
"I think this plan needs to be more realistic with these types of places.
“I’m not convinced that youth-friendly spaces in council libraries are going to be all that appealing to some young people, because it does not particularly appeal to me.”
Miss Fitzpatrick believed that mutual respect and better communication between youth and the community would make young people more productive with their time.
“There will be less need (for younger generations) to lash out with crimes and unsocial behaviour,” Miss Fitzpatrick said.
The SCYS draft was available for the community to view and contribute input up until November 10, 2010.
It was to be reviewed and finalised before it was launched in December, 2010.
Image(s) designed by Karis Howard
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Submitted Comments
Great article Karis, it is certainly a great decision for the Sunshine Coast. Well done!
Georgie Capel