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Youth participation

Youthlaw is committed to the principle of youth participation. This is a multi-faceted concept extending well beyond mere consultation. Youth participation means involving young people in the decision-making processes of the Committee of Management and directly involving young people in key policy formulation and project implementation. Meaningful participation involves:

Raising young people's awareness of the social, political and economic issues affecting them.
Providing young people with ongoing support.
Providing young people with a sense of belonging and ownership in relation to decision-making.
Providing young people with a sense that their participation is valued.
Providing adequate resourcing including time, space, funding and information.
Acknowledging the contribution of young people (e.g. reimbursement of costs).
Acknowledging some of the barriers young people may face (e.g. timing of meetings) and modifying or removing these barriers.

Young people are currently involved in Youthlaw in the following ways:

The Committee of Management

An exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act (1995) granted by the Equal Opportunity Commission of Victoria has allowed for 2 positions on the management committee to be restricted to people under the age of 25 years.Youthlaw supports these members by providing mentors, financial assistance where required and training.

Membership

Young people are valued members of Youthlaw and we are considering different ways to increase young people's access to and participation in our organisation.

Recruitment

Young people have been involved in staff recruitment processes including the recruitment of the Director and the Advocacy and Human Rights Officer.

Volunteers

Currently all volunteers are young people. Volunteers assist with policy and project work. We are currently looking at ways we can better involve young people in our policy work.

Resources

The Youth Affairs Council and the Office for Youth have produced the Taking Young People Seriously handbooks which are a series of resources exploring young people's participation in their communities.

See the Youth Affairs Council website for more information