TAKING PARTicipation seriously

The New South Wales (Australia) Commission for Children and Young People has published a comprehensive guide to child and youth participation. The TAKING PARTicipation seriously kit includes seven sections covering topics such as recruitment, roles and responsibilities, induction, support for young people, involving young people in research, preparing young people for meetings, dealing with turnover, evaluation, planning conferences and events, and many others. Each section can be downloaded for free, and there is also a link to a document containing further participation research and resources.

Australian Youth Advisory Board guides government's Internet safety policy

Five members of the Australian government's Youth Advisory Group met today at Parliament House in Canberra with the government's minister in charge of broadband communications to offer suggestions on how the government can support cyber safety. The YAG members also met with the Consultative Working Group on Cyber-Safety.

The broadband minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, noted that since May of this year nearly 8,000 posts have been made to the advisory group's online forum, y@g Online. The Youth Advisory Group includes some 300 members.

Some examples of the advice received from advisory group members:

“We need an anonymous online chat facility up for kids to talk about their problems with a professional.”

“Really promote the website so kids just know where to go.”

“Help us to understand the differences between different social networking sites and help us to understand how to use them safely.”

Young Australians advise Government on cyber-safety

Young Victorian of the Year says Australia driven by a "culture of tokenism when it comes to youth participation"

Tom Woodroofe, named the Young Victorian of the Year today for his work encouraging youth participation in politics, writes in the July 2 The Age:

Ironically, since the International Year of Youth in 1985, Australia has been increasingly driven by a culture of tokenism when it comes to youth participation. That year, young people went from being teenagers or adults participating in society as individuals, to being part of a social category that labelled them until they turned 25.

From this came pressure for corporations and government to be seen to be engaging with young people. Tokenistic programs popped up everywhere designed to tick off flashy corporate social responsibility strategies or to fill pages of glossy annual reports with young smiling faces.

But the result has rarely been meaningful participation.

Woodroofe argues that the effectiveness of efforts to engage young people can't be measured by the number of youth engaged, but by the extent to which their involvement leads to actual change. He plans to spend his year in the spotlight not only encouraging more young people to be involved in their communities, but to "refocus youth engagement towards helping young people discover their passions and create change."

Young people don't speak with one voice