A strategic approach to planning for the needs and experiences of young people

Written by Leanne Tu’ipulotu, Senior Advisor, Consulting

Young people can be left behind if they are unable to access appropriate services, support and opportunities. Connecting young people to those around them is essential to ensuring social cohesion.

A Strategic Approach

Carpentaria Shire Community Engagement - learning from others

A strategic planning approach to improving the lives and wellbeing of young people can be achieved by developing a Youth Strategy. Through this development, the community will have the opportunity to reflect on and raise issues and opportunities for young people in the shire. Young people will be given a voice and engaged in developing the future strategic direction. Creating an opportunity for young people to think about their role in the shire and potential pathways to achieve desired outcomes. And also providing a crucial avenue for young people to be engaged and learn from civic and cultural leaders.

A Youth Strategy provides a plan for what Council will do for young people living in the shire over the next five years. This strategy empowers the voices of future leaders - helping them to set a joint vision for the region that they will inherit to care for people, culture and country. Reflecting on issues and opportunities and providing a way forward for Council to work in partnership with young people and other key stakeholders to harness ideas and ways to address presenting issues now and into the future.

A strategy provides a framework that sets out how council will work with young people, parents, Elders, schools, training providers, service providers and other levels of government to support young people to reach their full potential. Guiding future planning for the provision of services and infrastructure. Ensuring that young peoples’ voices are heard, they are connected with their community and supported with a collaborative approach from service providers and community leaders.

Key Components to Youth Strategy Development

1. Community Engagement and Consultation

Workshop with young people at Normanton State School

Community engagement and consultation are critical in the development of a Youth Strategy. Consultative processes are essential to assist in ensuring the community knows, understands and has a voice in what, when and why action is happening. Strategy development should be informed by outcomes of community-based consultation and engagement. This will ensure that the Youth Strategy is well grounded to provide direction for council to guide programs, initiatives, advocacy and support work for young people and their families.

The need to provide increased support for young people through programs, activities and skill development opportunities can be identified through community consultation.

A multi-pronged approach to community engagement and consultation ensures that there is a mix of engagement. For example:

• Online engagement through surveys
• Face-to-face engagement such as:
  • Workshops with young people
  • Community Forum with local service providers
  • Meeting with the local Mayor and Councillors and council’s Senior Executive
• Telephone and video conferencing with organisations and government agencies that are regionally based.

It is essential to ensure that young people are engaged and that they have a say in their future, and they are part of the development of future pathways, opportunities and solutions. This engagement process is an important step to trigger young people to stop and consider their role to becoming active participants in influencing decisions that impact them and identifying what support they need to enable them to reach their full potential.  

      2. Link with other strategy documents

Youth Strategy development should link to council’s Corporate Plan and build on other local and regional strategic documents. It also needs to be aligned with both State and Federal policy such as the Queensland Youth Strategy1 and the National Australia’s Youth Policy Framework2.

Linking in with other key policies, reports and plans such as the Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNICEF)3 and the Closing the Gap Report4 and their outlined targets.

      3. Learn from others

Engaging with Service Providers in Normanton

A strategy should build upon emerging trends and best practices in community youth development to increase resilience, develop protective factors and engage young people with adults in the community to foster positive community development.

4. Understand the current situation

It is important to understand the environment that young people are living in, for example:

• What are the demographic statistics?
• Who are the traditional owners of the land?
• What is the lifestyle for young people in this region?
• What are the local education and training opportunities?
• What is the industry base and what employment opportunities are there for young people?
• What services are available to support young people?
• What things are there for young people to do locally?

It is important to understand the historical, cultural and social complexity of the local community context and to build on community strengths and previous work.

A Case Study

Rangers from the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation

Carpentaria Shire Council was successful in securing a grant from the North West Minerals Province Building Sustainable Communities Grant 2021 to develop a Youth Strategy. The Council engaged Peak Services to develop a Youth Strategy for the shire. Work is currently underway to prepare the Carpentaria Youth Strategy 2023-2028.

The development of a Youth Strategy demonstrates how Council is supporting young people to navigate life’s challenges and be engaged and active citizens who contribute productively to society.

Mark Crawley, CEO, Carpentaria Shire Council said “Carpentaria Shire Council’s corporate documents were very light on for reference to our Youth and we rectified this with the adoption of a new Corporate Plan in May of 2021. Council was fortunate to receive funding soon after adopting the new Corporate Plan to develop a Five-Year Youth Strategy and engaged Peak Services to assist with developing the Strategy.”

Mark says “We are very happy with the progress undertaken to date and the engagement Peak Services have been able to undertake within the community. We envisage that we will have a Strategy that the Youth will consider their own and engage more in activities over the life of the Strategy and towards the development of the next Strategy.”

For more information about developing a Youth Strategy, please contact Peak Services Director Consulting, Brian Jackson bjackson@wearepeak.com.au

1 Queensland Youth Strategy www.des.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/231095/qld-youth-strategy.pdf

2 National Australia’s Youth Policy Framework www.dese.gov.au/australias-youth-policy-framework/resources/australias-youth-policy-framework

3 Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNICEF) www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention

4 Closing the Gap Report ctgreport.niaa.gov.au/