The Wellspring

A report released by the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme (NYARS), Rewriting the rules for youth participation – inclusion and diversity in government and community decision-making, prepared by the Cultural and Indigenous Research Centre Australia (CIRCA) in conjunction with the Inspire Foundation and Dr Ariadne Vromen, has found that popular youth participation approaches – such as youth advisory boards – largely fail to engage with young people from diverse backgrounds.

This means hundreds of thousands of young Australians – particularly those living with a disability, from indigenous, refugee and new and emerging communities, young people living in care and from low socio-economic backgrounds – are unable to have a say on issues that affect them and their communities.

The report is the first of its kind to be conducted in Australia, and aims to provide government and community organisations with a framework for youth participation approaches that facilitate the involvement of young people from a range of backgrounds.

Co-author of the report, Dr Ariadne Vromen from the University of Sydney’s Department of Government and International Relations, said, “This report is timely with the recent announcement of the Australian Youth Forum and the Government’s commitment to facilitate the participation of young people and the youth sector in Government decision-making. However, young people who contributed to this research are telling us that participation is not just about ‘having a say’ ­- the Australian Youth Forum needs to move beyond consultation by ensuring that issues that matter to young people and their experiences are incorporated into policy making.”

The research also finds that:

• Few organisations offer targeted approaches to ensure barriers to participation are addressed, although they report a commitment to supporting diversity in young people’s participation in community and government decision-making.
• Government and community organisations are yet to utilise the interactive potential of the internet to facilitate participation.
• Community and government organisations report that the biggest barrier to involving young people from a diverse range of backgrounds in decision-making is resources.

Dr Vromen said, “Though the Federal Government commitment of $8 million will go some way to supporting increased participation of young people, we need to ensure that resources are committed at all levels of government and across the community so that no young people are excluded from participating.”

Download the full report at http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/B05B1B75-94E6-4414-8391-CA9908FA1975/24003/08212NYARSpublication1_Inclusionanddiversity_webaw.pdf.