Youth Voices
It's time to build our first Youth Strategy!
The Shire of Denmark is developing its inaugural Youth Strategy. This is in response to our community telling us that it is time to focus on Youth Services. We have engaged the Youth Affairs Council of WA (YACWA) to help us do this work.
Why we are developing a Youth Strategy
The aim of the Youth Strategy is to better understand what is important to young people and identify what we need to do to improve our offerings and services for young people in Denmark. To do this we will be talking with:
- Young people aged 12 to 25 who live, work, study, volunteer or visit/use groups and services in the Shire
- Parents and caregivers of young people
- Groups and organisations (including businesses) that work with or have a connection to young people
- Shire staff and Elected Members
How you can get involved in the Youth Strategy
Peer researchers
We want to talk with lots of young people to find out what actions to focus on and we want other young people to help us with this. We haved recruited six young people aged 15 to 25, who live, work, study, or visit/use groups and services in the Shire to be peer researchers.
The peer researchers helped us design a youth survey and youth interview questions and give us advice on how to promote all of these to young people. They will then go out into the community and each survey 30 young people aged 12 to 25 and conduct a small number of ‘vox pop’ style interviews.
The survey and interview delivery phase will run from 1st August to 9th September, and they will gather 20 surveys from young people in that time and hold two to three interviews.
Youth Survey
Help us develop the Shire’s inaugural Youth Strategy! Have your say through this survey for:
- Young people (aged 12 to 25) who live, study, work, volunteer or visit the Shire
- Parents/caregivers of young people aged 12 to 25
- Interested community members who want to improve offerings for young people
Young people go in a draw to win a $100 EFTPOS gift card! Parents/caregivers & community members go in the draw to win a $50 EFTPOS gift card. The survey takes 10 to 15 minute to complete. The survey closes Sunday 8th September 2024
Your information will be used to set the direction for youth services in the Shire over the next five years!
Youth Workshops
Youth workshops will be held with schools and groups in the Shire. More information about these will be distributed when these opportunities are finalised with participating organisations.
Parents and Caregivers Survey
Parents and caregivers of young people aged 10 to 25 in the Shire will have an opportunity to have their say on current service provision and ideas about opportunities for the future via a parent and caregiver survey. The survey will be available on Your Denmark.
One-on-one Interviews
We will be holding one on one interviews via phone and via videoconference from June through to August 2024. These will take approximately minutes and are for any individual, group, organisation, or business that connects with young people including youth services, community services, recreation services, faith groups, schools and other education providers and businesses.
You can get in touch with Lianda on lianda@yacwa.org.au to arrange a time.
Postcard
From July through to September 2024 we will be rolling out a postcard campaign where we ask for everyone in the community to share one wish or big idea they have for young people in the Shire. Look out for these through your local Shire services.
Solutions-focused Roundtable
In October we will hold a solutions-focused roundtable with groups, organisations, and businesses to present the consultation data and have a big picture look at the systems at play in the Shire (and beyond). In this workshop, we will involve attendees in codesigning actions and initiatives that may go in the Youth Strategy.
The aim of this session is two-fold:
- To reflect back to you want we have heard and where we feel we need to focus our attention
- To use design principles to flesh out our solutions and actual actions that will go into the Youth Strategy
We invite anyone who works with young people in the Shire of Denmark to this roundtable, including services, organisations, groups, education providers etc. Some Shire staff will also be in attendance.
The focus of this workshop is very much on solutions! The aim at the end of this session is for you to have a good idea of the types of things the Youth Strategy will address and help us with tangible ideas of actions.
The Roundtable will be Wednesday 9 October, 9.30am – 11.30am. If you are interested in attending, register here.
Community
From March through to April we will roll out a postcard campaign where we ask for everyone in the community to share one wish or big idea they have for young people in the Shire. Look out for these through your local Shire services.
How I can get more information
The Youth Affairs Council of Western Australia (YACWA) is running the Youth Strategy development with the Shire of Denmark. If you have any questions, please contact Lianda Gibson on 9227 5440 or email lianda@yacwa.org.au.
If you want to speak with someone at the Shire about this, please contact Rosie Arnephie, Community Development Officer on 9848 0333 or rosemarie.arnephie@denmark.wa.gov.au
Check out our Youth Fest event for 2024!
Thanks to everyone who came along to Youth Fest and made it such a wonderful day.
