Youth Affairs Council Victoria

HIRING: A range of roles across our vibrant organisation 👇

🤳 Media and Communications Coordinator (4 – 4.5 days)
Applications close Friday 16 August – this week!

💸 Finance, Administration and Facilities Officer (5 days)
Applications close Sunday 25 August

📣 Advocacy Manager - Policy and Communications (5 days, negotiable)
Applications close Friday 30 August

Apply now: YACVic.org.au/about-us/work-with-us

Please share with your networks!

Note: We are not accepting applications through LinkedIn. Please read each position description carefully.

Last week, Victoria’s new Youth Justice Bill passed in the Lower House. It’s set to be debated next week in the Upper House.

It proposes some promising changes. However, the government's promise from last year — to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 by 2027 — is so far nowhere to be seen.

Youth workers and community-based prison alternatives are ready to support children. We’re calling on the Parliament to vote in support of these critical reforms to Victoria’s youth justice system. Here’s what you can do:

👉 Read our article: YACVic.org.au/youth-justice-bill-victoria

👉 See what the Smart Justice Coalition has to say: https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2024/07/30/vic-youth-justice

👉 Write to your MP, urging them to raise the age to 14 and divert young people from prison: https://changetherecord.good.do/raisetheage/vic/

Insight: Victoria's new Youth Justice Bill Smart Justice for Young People (SJ4YP), a coalition of over 40 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, human rights, social services, health, youth, religious and legal advocates are calling on the Victorian Parliament to back and strengthen the Bill.

This is your friendly reminder to submit your HEY grant applications before 11 August 🌈 🤑

Our annual grant program supports LGBTIQA+ young people (25 and under) and existing services to lead projects that improve LGBTIQA+ mental health and wellbeing.

Want to apply? Here’s what you need to do:

🧠 Step 1: Develop your idea

💻 Step 2: Jump onto our HEY grants webpage and read our FAQ page. All your burning questions should be answered on there.

🏳️‍🌈 Step 3: Submit your grant application through Smarty Grants!

Here’s all the links you need:

🔗 Our webpage: YACVic.org.au/hey-grants

🔗 FAQ page: YACVic.org.au/get-involved/hey/grant-faqs

🔗 Smarty Grants portal: YACV.smartygrants.com.au/round14

Victorian Government News
Uniting Vic.Tas
City of Greater Geelong
headspace Bendigo
headspace
Minus18
Parents of Gender Diverse Children
Brophy Family & Youth Services
Rainbow Network
WayOut Macedon Ranges

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NOMINATE FOR A RURAL YOUTH AWARD! Do you know a young person who's put their heart and soul into peer work? Or maybe someone who's using social media creatively?

Nominations for the Rural Youth Awards are now open for a range of categories.

You can nominate a young person, youth worker, or youth program that has made a difference in your community.

Swipe 👉 for all the categories.

YACVic.org.au/rural/rural-youth-awards/

Round 14 of our HEY grants are now open 😍 🏳️‍🌈

We’re looking to fund projects or initiatives that support the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ young Victorians.

Grants of up to $10,000 are available!

Applications close on Friday 9 August.

Apply now: YACV.smartygrants.com.au/round14

Find out more: YACVic.org.au/hey

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NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN for the 2024 YACVic Rural Youth Awards! 🤩

No one knows rural and regional Vic like the people who live and work here. We know the amazing innovation and hard work you contribute to make your community better for the next generation.

You nominate a person, project or program for a Rural Youth Award to celebrate their amazing achievements (with $1000 to be won in each category!).

Nominate now: YACVic.org.au/RYA

“If circumstances don't improve, that can really mean that I'm just permanently trapped in that sort of cycle of poverty”.

This is the reality for 17-year-old Natalie from Gisborne. With no plan from the Victorian Government to address youth housing in this cost-of-living crisis, Natalie may hold off university to work and support her family.

This shouldn’t be the case.

This government must step up and commit to a Youth Housing and Homelessness Strategy. A plan for youth housing would mean a plan for people like Natalie to study, find steady work and live a dignified life.

Read the full story with ABC: ABC.net.au/news/2024-06-11/rental-crisis-student-poverty-housing-issues/103958584

Studying for exams in a derelict rental, Natalie struggles to see how she will break the poverty cycle Living in a derelict rental is causing a lot of stress for Natalie as she eyes off a university degree.

In our latest blog post, hear from some of our brilliant Young Peer Facilitators about how their role set them up for success in the youth sector ✅✨

Want to find out for yourself? Book in for training before EOFY (you’ll also receive a 10% discount! 😍)

Read the full story: YACVic.org.au/blog/how-working-as-a-facilitator-has-changed-young-peoples-lives

Book now: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=IRE_rwlzMEq_HGm_SxccWL596WTcQ9ZBu3-7j1jJZKpUQzM0RFQ0NjFHU1JMNUc1VDNEQ1VFV0dLVCQlQCN0PWcu

How working as a facilitator has changed young people's lives At the heart of YACVic lies a dynamic team of Young Peer Facilitators, dedicated to amplifying the voices of young people across the state.

Calling all regional and rural LGBTIQA+ young people 📢

Next Thursday, we are hosting a FREE Young Leaders Forum in Geelong 🌈 🏳️‍⚧️

This event will include fun activities and opportunities like:

👉 A lived experience panel of young LGBTIQA+ leaders and advocates

👉 Storytelling workshops by Transcending the Narrative

👉 Creative partnerships and zine-making with More than Melanin

👉 Where to find service information for LGBTIQA+ young people

👉 Networking opportunities

👉 Pathways to advocacy workshop

👉 Catered lunch

👉 Music, performances and more!

Register now: Events.humanitix.com/lgbtiqa-young-leaders-forum

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ICYMI: Young person Kelsey spoke to our Treasurer Tim Pallas, at CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia)'s Victorian State Budget Address, about how the government will continue to address the climate crisis.

On our blog this week, get Kelsey’s two cents on Tim’s responses 👀

Read the full story: YACVic.org.au/2024-victorian-state-budget-climate-anxiety/

What our government is doing about climate anxiety We’re all stressing about climate change. The scientific data is pretty dramatic but it’s a big topic with a lot of details. It can be hard to keep up with what can and can’t be recycled, where our recycling is even going, and if the local wildlife are okay.

STATEMENT: National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week 🖤💛❤️

CW: discussion of racism and child removal


26 May is National Sorry Day, where we mourn the forcible government removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and communities, known as the Stolen Generations.

Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic) recognises that this violent removal was done in the name of child and youth protection. In Victoria, punitive child protection and youth justice interventions continue at high rates against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

Today, Australian child protection services are 10.5 times more likely to remove an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child than a non-Indigenous child. Victoria is the state with the second-highest rate of Aboriginal children and young people overrepresented in out-of-home care.

The work of apology, truth and reconciliation is clearly not behind us.

Since the Bringing Them Home report on the impact of the Stolen Generations was tabled in 1997, there have been over 33 reports into child protection.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission made 46 recommendations in this year’s Yoorrook for Justice report, of which the government has only accepted 28.

We urge the Victorian Government – do not let there be another report, another child taken from their family and community. Listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about what their children and young people need.

Government must accept the Yoorrook for Justice recommendations in full, recommit to youth justice reforms, and of child criminal responsibility to at least 14.

Sorry means you don’t do it again.

TRAINING DISCOUNT: Youth Participation 101🕺✨

Are you looking to reinvigorate your team’s practice with young people? Have some PD budget to use before the end of June? Book in with us!

🤑 All 2024 trainings booked before EOFY will receive a 10% discount! 🤑

Youth participation is a youth work principle that acknowledges young people as the experts in their own lives. This interactive training run by young people themselves, so you’ll learn first-hand exactly how to boost your youth groups, programs and advocacy!

To book, fill out this form: Forms.office.com/r/LkPxBDp9Fc

Learn more: YACVic.org.au/training-and-services/what-we-offer/ -2

ADVOCACY UPDATE: We made a joint submission with the Alcohol and Drug Foundation to the Inquiry into va**ng and to***co controls in Victoria 💨🚬

We spoke to many young Victorians and sector representatives about how to address v**e and cigarette use. They told us:

🎯 The Victorian Government must invest in targeted, public health va**ng campaigns

🤝 These campaigns must be co-designed with young people, promoted on social media and take a harm minimisation approach

💸 More funding is needed for trained youth workers in schools

Read our full submission: YACVic.org.au/va**ng-inquiry-submission

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Submission to the Inquiry into va**ng and to***co controls in Victoria We’ve made a joint submission with the Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF) to the Inquiry into va**ng and to***co controls in Victoria.

“I had no expectations for this year’s Federal Budget” 🤔

On our blog this week, Sumaya discusses how the government must work harder to create better outcomes for her generation. Like many other young people, she believes that more money needs to be directed to:

🎓 University students in all courses with placement requirements

🏡 Increasing Rental Assistance, Youth Allowance and Job Seeker payments

🧠 Supporting those with complex mental health conditions

Read the full story: YACVic.org.au/2024-federal-budget-for-young-people

How the 2024 Federal Budget will help young people We’re in a housing crisis, cost of living is at an all-time high, and there’s a lack of adequate support for young people like myself. But, the government gave me a glimmer of hope.

The 2024-25 federal budget makes important steps to support young people experiencing homelessness, but fails to prevent crisis upstream with poverty and rental stress.

Read our response 🧐👇

Analysis: 2024-25 Federal Budget The government reallocated funding towards housing for young people without homes, and women and children experiencing family violence. And in good news for students there’s some big changes to how HECs debts are indexed, meaning student debts will come down.

STATEMENT: Today on International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Inters*xism and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), we celebrate the strength of LGBTIQA+ young people in the face of rising levels of discrimination and vilification, both here and internationally.

IDAHOBIT marks 34 years since the World Health Organisation removed homos*xuality from the Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.

But there’s still so much work to be done. Same s*x relationships are still criminalised in 60 UN member states, and attacks on the right to medical treatment of trans and gender diverse young people are growing internationally.

As the world recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it’s a timely reminder many LGBTIQA+ young people’s safety and rights continue to be under threat from new forms of discrimination, hate speech, and the exclusion of trans and gender diverse young people from sport and school. We denounce this discriminatory behaviour and champion inclusion across the community.

LGBTIQA+ young people should be able to live safely without fear of abuse, violence or discrimination based on their s*xuality or gender identity. Without protection of anti-vilification laws, this leaves them exposed to harm and unable to pursue legal action. We urge the Victorian and Australian Governments to rectify this with anti-vilification legislation to ensure equality and justice can be achieved.

In the face of this, LGBTIQA+ young people and communities continue to create safe spaces for support and pride, and fight for resistance. YACVic is proud of our role coordinating the Healthy Equal Youth Partners and Grants as part of our response to support all LGBTIQA+ young people.

LGBTIQA+ young people today are energetically taking the torch passed from the advocates and activists who came before them. They continue to pave the way for a more equitable and inclusive community, where LGBTIQA+ young people are valued, supported and celebrated.

As a sector, we are compelled by the Victorian Child Safety Standards, the Code of Ethical Practice and the Embracing Equality Charter. But most of all, we are compelled by rights of the young people we work with and for.

YACVic remains committed to advancing and improving the lives and rights of LGBTIQA+ young people and urges community and governments to uphold the values of equality, freedom and justice for all.

If you or someone you know is feeling unsafe and/or needs immediate support, you can contact one of these services:

Rainbow Door: 1800 729 367
QLife: 1800 184 527

YACVic.org.au/advocacy/idahobit-day-2024

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News flash: Young people are cutting out more than their avo toast. They're struggling to afford soaring house prices and increased student debts, all while on disproportionate wages 🥑🤷

On our blog, Ally discusses how the latest State Budget was disappointing for young people in crucial areas.

“The dream of moving out and independence feels more like a pipe dream than a tangible goal.”

Read the full post: www.YACVic.org.au/blog/meh-state-budget

VIC BUDGET ANALYSIS: Two years into Victoria’s all-of-government youth strategy ‘Our promise, Your future’, how is the government faring on key issues for young people like housing, cost of living, mental health or climate change?

Read our analysis for a plain language breakdown of exactly what the government is (and isn't) investing in over the next financial year.

YACVic.org.au/2024-victorian-budget-analysis

Analysis: 2024-25 Victorian Budget In a bid to manage COVID debt, this year’s Victorian Government state budget has unsurprisingly been another year of constraint.

2024-24 Victorian state budget: we love to see the government continue to fund most youth services, but lack of material change for housing or cost of living is a disappointment. Read our response: YACVic.org.au/2024-victorian-budget

All young people have a right to healthy and peaceful lives with their friends and family around them.

Right now, the Israeli Government is committing a violent g*nocide against Palestinians. Over 50% of Palestine's population is under 18, and to date over 13,000 children and young people have been k*lled.

Young people, youth workers, and youth organisations around Victoria are leading advocacy to end the g*nocide. We invite you to sign our letter to government representatives in Victoria, urging them to use their diplomatic power to:

🚫 Demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire
❤ Support adequate and unobstructed humanitarian aid
🚫 Cease all military cooperation and weapons development (including here in Victoria) until a ceasefire
⚖ Uphold Australia’s commitments to human rights and international law

Sign now: YACVic.org.au/ceasefire

Three years have passed since the government committed to housing for young people with mental health challenges, but still no action. ⌚

In the meantime youth homelessness is reaching critical levels, and the problem is intersectional. For LGBTIQA+ young people, discrimination makes it harder to get housing and mental health support.

This , we're working with other LGBTIQA+ youth services and asking Vic Gov to deliver on their promise to young people - read our letter: YACVic.org.au/youth-homelessness-matters-day-2024/

Our new and improved is here! Book your spot now 👉 yacvic.org.au/youth-participation-april

Developed and delivered by young people, you’ll hear directly from them how best to connect with and engage young people in your work and communities.

Our next two-part session begins next Thursday 4 April. See you there!

RURAL/REGIONAL YOUNG PEOPLE IN VIC! Tell us what you think and win $100 👇

Ever been to one of our workshops or programs? Maybe you were at the Rural Youth Awards, Youth Forums or Potholes to Possibilities conference? Read our newsletter Signposts? Ever taken home one of the iconic YACVic sheep toys? 🐑

We would love to know what you liked, and how we can be better. Take our survey: www.surveymonkey.com/r/5SFQXCG 💗

How can the Australian Human Rights Commission's project to protect the rights of trans, gender diverse and non-binary young people support those in your community?

Tell us via our survey and help form our submission to this project 💜 surveymonkey.com/r/52VN53F

VA**NG REFORM: Are you a young person or youth worker? We want to hear from you! 👇

The Victorian Government is holding an Inquiry into Va**ng and To***co Controls. It is 💯 essential that they understand what responses and services would be most helpful, accessible and non-judgmental for young people.

We need you to tell us what that looks like! Your response to our va**ng survey will be passed on to government in our submission to the Inquiry as important evidence for what young people need.

Have your say: www.SurveyMonkey.com/r/5SXB68B

Alcohol and Drug Foundation

Heat kills more Australians than any other disaster. With another heatwave coming up this weekend, it is so important to be prepared. Here are our best budget and rental-proof tips for staying cool 👇

PREPARE:
🐶 Ensure pets have water and shade
🐦 Set up a bird bath outside for local thirsty wildlife
⏲ Reschedule any outdoor activities for cooler parts of the day - check the forecast to help
🥗 Prep cool meals so you don't have to go out for food or cook in the heat.
💊 Talk to your dr about how any meds you take impact how your body responds to heat
🥵 Know what to do if you get heat stress (which can lead to heat stroke). Look up the page 'heat-related health problems'
📱 Have an emergency plan - visit YACVic.org.au/disaster-hub for a guide

ON HOT DAYS:
🌇 Close blinds & curtains early in the morning
❄ Cool the coolest room of the house to save power and money, and keep the doors closed
💧 Drink lots of water regularly (even if you don't think you're thirsty)
👕 Wear loose clothes
♥ Check on your friends, fam and neighbours to make sure they're ok, and know who to contact if you need help

Start off the neighbourly care by sharing this post!

RURAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Do you work with young people in the Great South Coast and want to know how to talk with them about ?

Our Yeah, Nah team are on their way! Sign up now:
Monday 22 April - YACVic.org.au/great-south-coast-yeah-nah-monday
Tuesday 23 April – YACVic.org.au/great-south-coast-yeah-nah-tuesday

Our peer educators will cover how to:
📝 Make sense of new consent legislation
❤️ Practise child safety and handle disclosures
💑 Get Yeah, Nah delivered in the GSC and support young people to practice safe and healthy relationships