GENERATING GREAT IDEAS CELLINE NARINLI LOOKS AT WAYS AUSTRALIAN YOUTH CAN IMAGINE. CREATE. INSPIRE. WITH THE MINISTER RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUTH AFFAIRS, THE HON. VICTOR DOMINELLO MP, AND CHAIR OF NSW YOUTH ADVISORY COUNCIL, EMMA BYRNE.
what their concerns are and to try and respond,” says Minister Dominello. “Young people more than any have the benefit of idealism and aspiration and opportunity and hope and in that world, a lot of great ideas can be generated.” With more than 4,350 people across NSW involved in NYW last year, participation, communication and engagement play vital roles in the work put towards a successful week. Byrne reaffirms the importance of youth participation in decision-making, suggesting that it’s enormously important and believes it is something that all levels of society can engage in. “I think if you are providing a service in some way that impacts on young people, it’s really important to be talking to them as consumers and getting their feedback and valuing that feedback and then acting on it. It’s very easy to make assumptions about what young people want or need and we can often skip the consultation part and so I think it’s really important for society to be directly talking to young people and to directly be taking that conversation on board.”
MINISTER VICTOR DOMINELLO
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t’s that time of the year again, when the nation shines a spotlight on young people in a weeklong celebration known as National Youth Week (NYW). This year’s theme, Imagine. Create. Inspire., aims to provide the youth of Australia with the opportunity to learn, speak out and be part of the decision-making process, whilst also bring awareness to common and overlooked issues they face. NYW is the largest celebration of young people in Australia, with thousands of young people aged 12-25 from across Australia getting involved each year. It’s a time celebrated by everyone – not only young people – a time to give a hand and lead the younger generations comfortably into the future. Drum had a chat to one of those youths, 21 year old Emma Byrne, chair of the NSW Youth Advisory Council, about the purpose of NYW. “[Youth Week] is firstly about young people having fun and feeling valued. And I think further to that it is about the community recognising the diverse and important contributions that young people make to society that often fly under the radar or go unrecognised or undervalued.”
EMMA BYRNE Byrne goes on to explain why she believes contributions from young people tend to go unrecognised: “I guess we aren’t reporters, we sort of don’t necessarily control mainstream media, we don’t necessarily have control over how we’re perceived by the mainstream community and often, poor examples can be exaggerated or interpreted as being, I guess, like a general norm of how young people behave, but I don’t think that that is necessarily true.” The Minister responsible for Youth Affairs, The Hon. Victor Dominello MP, however is not one to undervalue the contributions of the youth. In the role he holds, Minister Dominello is responsible for the Youth Advisory Council, with which he works to bring new ideas and new initiatives for young people to the attention of the cabinet as well as other matters that are of concern to the youth, whether it’s mental health, cyber-bullying and the like. “The best way society can help the youth is to engage with the youth and when I say that, I mean meaningful engagement, not just tokenism. To actively listen and to find out
As with every year, NYW sees local, state and federal governments working together for and with young people. This year all 152 councils across NSW will be participating, with events ranging from music festivals to skateboard competitions to art shows and workshops. One of the major events occuring during this week is the YouthRock Competition finals. The competition has been seen as a platform that has launched certain acts into the spotlight, contributing to their success as a band, with past winners including Silverchair and Alex Lloyd. Minister Dominello shares this excitement: “You know, Silverchair is one of my favourite bands and Alex Lloyd is fantastic.” While it is primarily all about fun and games, the week is also first and foremost about raising awareness on issues that are currently affecting young Australians. Mental illness pops up time and time again as one of the prominent issues that we as a society need to work towards improving. “I don’t want to isolate one issue over another, because they are numerically important and I don’t think it could do justice to it that way,” says Minister Dominello on the matter. “The Youth Advisory Council have indicated that these are some of the key areas. I think mental health is something that we should pay particular focus on, always; you know it cuts across all aspects of our society, but in the formative years, in the young years, when what you do in your young life so
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YOUR GUIDE TO YOUTH WEEK 2012
It’s easy to feel like you’re getting the short straw when you’re younger. It can be difficult to have your voice heard, to ensure your opinions matter and to get the same opportunities as those older than you. But Youth Week is ground zero for solutions, discussions and a whole lot of fun. As always, this year’s Youth Week presents a huge amount of activities – skateboarding comps and demos, festivals, art shows, band comps and skills and training courses, all of which have been selected to provide the best possible week for young Australians. Here at Drum, we are taking this year’s slogan Imagine. Create. Inspire. quite literally and have compiled this supplement to help you get everything you can from the events and really create something out of Youth Week. Inside you’ll find the Minister responsible for Youth Affairs, The Hon. Victor Dominello MP, and chair of the NSW Youth Advisory Council, Emma Byrnes, talking about the aim of the event. There’s also a lowdown on Youth Week’s flagship band comp, YouthRock, where we talk to Nick Read, frontman of last year’s winners Pennyblack. On top of that we’ve got Q&As with a selection of awesome bands who are playing at various events throughout Youth Week. So if you take nothing else from this year’s slogan, at least make sure that you enjoy your time to shine and imagine, create and inspire your way through the one week of the year that is run for and by young people!
often dictates where you end up. mental health is something we should all really focus on.” This year, NYW has been sponsored by three major organisations that have with them important and relevant messages to send across to the youth. NSW Centre for Road Safety and Transport will focus on safe roads, Work Cover NSW will focus on safe work places and NSW Health will be providing information about safe sex. In the words of Byrne, Youth Week is thus “being utilised as a vehicle for these messages to reach young people and the wider community”. Ultimately, there’s one thing that is desired by the youth of Australia along with everyone else. Byrne explains it perfectly: “I don’t think that young people or, like, teenagers’ ambitions are necessarily completely different to that of ‘adults’… I think happiness is just the objective of everyone in general and it is sort of about finding things that make you feel happy and fulfilled and I don’t think that that necessarily changes with age.” National Youth Week 2012 will run from Friday 13 to Sunday 22 April 2012, with events running all over the country. THE DRUM MEDIA • 53