Practical Outcomes & Considerations

Fall 08 Oct 2012Geelong Community Youth StrategyA strategy for planning the future through a new understanding and practice of youth participation PRACTICAL OUTCOMES & CONSIDERATIONSTABLE OF CONTENTSEXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 RECOMMENDATIONS 4 INTRODUCTION 5 BACKGROUND 6 THE GEEYOUNG PROJECT METHODOLOGY 7 Key Concepts 7 Key Method Innovations 8 THE CONSULTATION PROCESS 10 Reaching out to Geelong’s young people 10 The GEEYOUNG Youth Forum 11 Engaging Geelong business leaders 13 STRATEGIC ELEMENTS 16 Youth Vision 16 Process - Considerations 18 Sustainable Structure - Considerations 20 APPENDIX 1: 23 A GEEYOUNG YOUTH PROSPECTUS 23 APPENDIX 2 25 Geelong Better Youth Services Pilot (BYSP) 25 APPENDIX 3 27 The #GEEYOUNG PROJECT Social Media Engagement Plan 27 APPENDIX 4 29 Reflections on GEEYOUNG 292 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The GEEYOUNG PROJECT builds on the process and outcomes from the Geelong Better Youth Services Project (GBYSP) that was undertaken in 2009-2011. When there was an opportunity to become a pilot site in the Better Youth Services Pilot (BYSP) program, COGG stepped up as facilitator and lead agency. The Geelong BYSP proved to be a very successful project, perhaps due to a history of cooperation and collaboration amongst the youth sector in Geelong, but also because of the ‘youth participation’ approach that was followed. COGG has played an important role in facilitating a youth agenda for change and innovation. Over the years, there have been several attempts to better coordinate youth services in Victoria. The goal is undisputed, but there has been a weak understanding of how to go about achieving the goal. A general reflection is that the political will for reform and the enthusiasm of various stakeholders has each time been exhausted before the foundations of change were laid down. Also, the involvement of young people has never been addressed as a core premise nor was there ever the necessary and sufficient commitment of resources to see the change process through. By contrast, the BYSP program made some real progress. The BYSP projects were about how communities might better identify and support vulnerable young people and improve the coordination of youth services. The Vulnerable Youth Framework provided a strong policy context. The approach taken by COGG to the BYSP was different to what was done in other areas. The Geelong BYSP worked through a real- world process of building youth participation into the core of the project work. The Geelong BYSP final report proposed an agenda of eight action projects that would enable further change (See pp.6-7). Statewide, the BYSP program was continued and further developed as the Youth Partnerships program administered by DEECD. In Geelong, a significant part of the BYSP agenda has been picked up through the development of The Geelong Project focused specifically on homeless and vulnerable youth. This ‘community of schools and youth services’ model is considered a lighthouse initiative for how to do more proactive early intervention, and it has attracted wider interest because of the possibilities for replication. Funding has been sourced through research undertaken by a team from Swinburne University ($350,000 over 2 years), with major funding from the Department of Human Services ($1.5m over a 15 months pilot phase) for early intervention workers, and funds from Youth Partnerships and DEECD ($157,000 over 18 months) for the development of an e-Wellbeing community IT system. Two of the recommendations of the BYSP, the ‘community youth strategy plan’ process and ‘youth participation’ were picked up by COGG under what has become the GEEYOUNG PROJECT. The positioning of this work is that the GEEYOUNG PROJECT works on a broader canvas, not specifically focusing on disadvantage and vulnerable youth, but on how the future for young people in Geelong might be constructed with their active participation. Once again, COGG has supported an innovative ‘youth participation’ approach. This has involved some challenging rethinking of how to work with young people and what it means to3 place ‘youth participation’ at the centre of the work. In this, ‘youth participation’ has not been an instrumental means to some end, but core to the idea of planning a community youth strategy as a youth participation process. Traditionally, a Youth Strategy is a plan for what a Council will do for young people. The concept of a community youth strategy that has been developed through the GEEYOUNG PROJECT initiative is planning beyond COGG and a process involving a whole range of community stakeholders, especially young people themselves. COGG is the facilitator and organiser of the process – the conductor of the orchestra, but most of the musicians are other stakeholders. COGG does some things but not most things. There is still a need for COGG Youth Development Unit planning and that takes place, but in a changing context. The Geelong Community Youth Strategy is planning beyond youth service delivery. This is different and innovative, but building on the success of the BYSP, it is beginning to change thinking and lay the basis for young peoples’ deeper involvement in planning and the plan for young people in Geelong (see pp. 7-9). The consultation process has been a successful exercise in capacity building for youth participation. Hundreds of young people from diverse backgrounds have contributed and over 100 have indicated that would welcome further involvement. Twenty businesses came forward to support the work of the project and share their aspirations for Geelong’s youth. This included a highly motivated group of young business owners and some of the most well- established businesses in Geelong (see pp.13-15). The GEEYOUNG Youth Forum on 14 th August 2012 brought together 161 people including 122 young people from at least eleven schools and educational programs and produced some strong messages about what young people want (see pp. 10-15). In the discussions facilitated through the GEEYOUNG PROJECT, young people expressed a need for opportunities to get together and organise events and activities. They voiced an aspiration for more control over their own lives. Aspirations about education and employment and wanting to be part of the shaping of what is done were strongly expressed also. But, perhaps, the most important outcome has been the demonstration that young people with some support can do a great deal for themselves and with increasing sophistication. GEEYOUNG has becoming a recognised brand/symbol for the youth participation strategy work/ youth-led planning in Geelong. The creative challenge is how to think out a practical way forward – the next step and how to reach to next horizon. A key insight crystallised during the GEEYOUNG process; this was the idea that for youth participation to be a sustainable, permanent feature of Geelong community life, there needs to be an open structure or organisation that actively involves young people from the local university and TAFE, the Geelong schools as well as young people in alternative education settings or in the labour force. This envisaged not-for-profit youth-led enterprise would act as the crucible or incubator for peer-to-peer learning and youth support and youth development in Geelong. In order to enable this, Council would need to consider a youth space somewhere in Central Geelong, not a ‘drop-in centre’, but a place where youth activity and planning for the future agenda can be organised. Some of the other stakeholders have indicated already that they would engage with and contribute to such a venture (pp.20-22). The missing link in any serious perspective for ‘youth participation’ is how to facilitate4 self-organised, reproducible activity by young people themselves and how to build this as a sustainable capacity. COGG plays the seminal role of facilitator, and accepts responsibility for ensuring there is sufficient support. Young people ultimately run the proposed organisation and the space(s) in much the same way as Melbourne’s SYN media or the Oaktree Foundation. GEEYOUNG is the first example of a local community developed youth-led social infrastructure (at this point in embryo only). Good examples of youth-led projects are not commonplace. Facilitating the self-organisation of young people is the enabling strategy for planning the future for young people in Geelong; this is the next horizon.RECOMMENDATIONS1. Support the emerging network of young people and business leaders who are interested in working on the development of a plan and a creative space for Geelong’s young people built on the foundations of ‘youth participation’, whereby young people are increasingly empowered through the process and in all its subsequent activities and consequences. Comment: An in-principle motion of support for the continuation of the GEEYOUNG PROJECT process would legitimise and provide a mandate for continuity.2. Provide for continued dedicated facilitation of the GEEYOUNG PROJECT process in whatever way is possible within existing budget constraints and supported by YDU staff. Comment: The process is not yet self-perpetuating and requires further support and facilitation to reach that point. 3. Resource the GEEYOUNG PROJECT team to take the invitation in the form of the GEEYOUNG Youth Prospectus (Invitation) to schools and other venues and sites where young people can be reached to build the cadre and network of community youth activists, young business people and citizens. Comment: The GEEYOUNG Youth Prospectus / Invitation is the basis for the work of the next step, but the actual work by young people to use it constructively to organise a wider active group and engage with other stakeholders will require some resources to happen. 4. Support the maintenance and functioning of the GEEYOUNG PROJECT website and social networking tools by the GEEYOUNG PROJECT. Comment: The web presence needs to become more active and be further developed with some core resource as well as volunteers.5. Support the GEEYOUNG PROJECT teams and COGG YDU staff to research the practical feasibility and financial dimensions of creating a self-acting youth network with its own space for presentation to COGG for the 2013-2014 budget cycle. Comment: This would be a practical document about possible sites, what would be required and some financial advice on its costs. Geelong businesses may be able to provide some expertise for this task.5 6. Seek other partners who might be able to invest financially in the GEEYOUNG PROJECT space and model, including the philanthropic and business sector, in addition to financial commitments that COGG is able to make for the 2013-2014 financial year. Comment: The process is not yet self-perpetuating and requires further support and facilitation to reach that point.6 INTRODUCTION The GEEYOUNG PROJECT was funded by the City of Greater Geelong (COGG) to undertake a strategic planning process that places the needs and aspirations of young people at its centre. The development of youth participation in Geelong as part of this process is a key requirement. The goals of the GEEYOUNG PROJECT are about establishing an overarching framework and strategic approach for a Geelong community youth strategy, and ultimately a Geelong Youth Strategy Plan that will enable the sustained development (over time) of what the Geelong community and its young people want to achieve together – a strategy for how to develop a vision for Geelong’s young people and then realise it. The focus for the strategy development process is young people who live, learn, work, live or play in Geelong. The premise that underpins the entire strategy is that only if we understand what young people want to achieve in the future can this be done authentically. Youth participation becomes the reference point for the entire process and its ultimate measure of success as a community. The approach was to begin with the positives and put in place a new collaborative approach that will underpin and enable young people and their community to discover and pursue together what they want to achieve over the next 10 years. An extensive consultation / visioning process has resulted in an emerging consensus and significant progress towards a shared understanding of what young people are seeking to achieve with their community. The multi-layered approach was bottom up and involved a range of formats and locations facilitated by young consultants over a six-month process. The broad-brush picture that has emerged for the Geelong of the future is a community known for supporting / delivering a happy and creative community for its youth, recognised for its celebration and respect for diversity. The clear message from the young people – is that they see investment in young people facilitating awareness-raising about opportunities in Geelong with their peers from a young age as a prerequisite to social, creative and business sustainability in Geelong. Also, young people see a community with a physical and educational infrastructure that supports the development of young minds – a place in the CBD where young people can come together and express ideas, with a focus on joining together across schools, cultures and religious boundaries. Geelong’s young people want to be known for being the culture they want to see in the future - rather than focusing on what is not working and trying to fix it - they want to be part of creating a new and inclusive community culture. So, in simple terms, what is proposed is the next step of the process, building on what has been done so far and with the efforts of those engaged. Each step along7 this reiterative journey is also a test of whether there is an appetite and sufficient drive to move forward, to make the vision for young people and the aspirations they have and others have for them into a reality. The one factor, without which none of this makes sense, is the engagement and involvement of young people in the process (i.e. the means) so that the community youth strategy is their strategy and then their plan.BACKGROUND The GEEYOUNG PROJECT builds on the process and outcomes from the Geelong Better Youth Services Pilot (BYSP) that was undertaken in 2010-2011. The GBYSP itself was based on the Vulnerable Youth Framework and focused on system development and reform. The three questions for the BYSP initiatives were: Q1: How can vulnerable young people be identified and supported earlier and more systematically? Q2: What data is needed to enable better planning of local services to improve outcomes for vulnerable young people? Q3: What can be done to improve existing government-funded youth service coordination and delivery? Geelong’s approach was notably different in that the participants led by Council worked through a participatory intensive process to formulate how the Geelong community might be able to respond. The BYSP final report suggested an agenda of action projects that would enable the change to be accomplished. These projects were: . Project ‘Community Youth Strategic Plan’ The facilitation of a process that knits together a better understanding of what young people, the service system and broader community are seeking to achieve in Geelong and how this can be achieved . Project ‘organisational model development’ The development of an organisational model for the establishment of a ‘community of youth services’ to coordinate day-to-day planning and action between youth services . Project ‘youth brand’ The idea of a symbolic youth ‘brand’ for Geelong as a way to identify access to the youth service system and represent the ‘system’ to young people, their families and the community broadly . Project ‘communications’ An effort to improve the information sharing across the Youth Services sector and cognate sectors working with young people. . Project ‘data and research’ The collection of micro-statistics by local schools and agencies to provide timely data on at risk young people8 . Project ‘youth participation’ The work to make young people’s involvement a core funded component of all community and service planning and delivery . Project ‘inter-sectoral professional development’ Bringing workers from different professions together for shared learning is an important way of building and maintaining a collaborative service culture . Project ‘funding’ Work on how the ‘community of youth services’ as a model for service integration and coordination could be funded in a recurrent way.A major part of this agenda has been the subject of developmental work. The research undertaken by a team for Swinburne University ($350,000 over 2 years) and the successful launch of The Geelong Project with major funding from the Departments of Human Services ($1.5m over 15 months pilot phase) and Education & Early Childhood Development ($157,000 over 18 months) has substantially achieved the work envisaged under ‘data and research’ as well as much but not everything under the development of a ‘community of youth services (and schools) ’ organisational model. The Geelong Project is of great interest to the Victorian Government and outside of Victoria as an exemplar for how communities can more effectively address disadvantage and get better outcomes for vulnerable young people. The Community Youth Strategic Plan and ‘youth participation’ was picked up by Council in the form of the GEEYOUNG PROJECT. Loosely carried forward as part of this was another BYSP recommendation to create a ‘youth brand’ for Geelong.. The GEEYOUNG PROJECT worked on a broader canvas, not just focusing on disadvantage and the issues of vulnerable youth, but on how the future for young people in Geelong might be actively constructed with their active involvement. In this, ‘youth participation’ has not been an instrumental means to some end, but core to the idea of planning a community youth strategy as a youth participation process. THE GEEYOUNG PROJECT METHODOLOGY The GEEYOUNG PROJECT has been an innovation for Geelong but it is also innovative in terms of what has previously been attempted in local government under youth development. The ultimate vision is a community youth strategy, not just a plan for Council’s youth work. Responsibility for the development of the strategy has been put in the hands of young people. A core team of local young people were trained and employed as GEEYOUNG PROJECT youth facilitators. One of their primary tasks was to find out if other young people want to be involved and if so, how to sustain their involvement. Another was to help gather the evidence that shaped the emergent youth vision and to develop some key recommendations.9 Key Concepts  Aspiration horizons – the engagement of a broader community in creating a common vision – to answer the question of what we are trying to achieve as a community. This work does not seek to develop a plan for the youth service system or evaluate the existing youth service system (service accountability) - subject of previous BYSP work and other current sector based work.  Appreciative inquiry – an approach to better understand young people’s experience of the great things in Geelong life including arts, culture, sport, education, employment and wellbeing. Too often, by starting with the troubling issues, the discussions and input into the consultation process never open up on what actually works or is really positive.  Community Development vs. Consultancy Research - The MOHOW approach to developing a youth strategy is iterative - and in itself a form of community development. It has sought to discover what is in place, who is involved and then work to make something happen that can both inform and be the beginning of a real change process.  Asset-based Community Development - young people are already engage in many parts of Geelong community life - but there is a need to know more about who and what are the human and physical community assets that that can be harnessed in the change process.  Young people as facilitators - The engagement and employment of local young people as paid GEEYOUNG PROJECT consultants was done as a capacity-building exercise in order to learn how to increase opportunities for more young people to be community planners/ leaders.Key Method Innovations The GEEYOUNG PROJECT methodology has harnessed the energy and expertise of a small team of young people, who had been identified already through the work of the Council’s Youth Development Unit (YDU). How this team has engaged in the Geeyoung Project over a nine-month period has become a model for what is envisaged in terms of future structures and processes that would embody the youth participation vision.  This has involved a team of young facilitators, the GEEYOUNG PROJECT Team, finding out from their peers what is their vision for the future of Geelong and how they want to be involved in achieving it.  Stakeholders forum (Nov 2011) - Developed a vision that in five years young people would be leading the GEEYOUNG PROJECT - this process). This stakeholder vision provided a strong footing for a youth led process to emerge and grow.  The consultation process, as described in November 2011, was envisaged as ‘iterative’ and ‘complex’ and around and between face-to-face meetings and a range of Web 2.0 tools. The use of social media as an engagement tool was 10 envisaged to be the primary engagement approach. Face to face meetings became a far more important tool than at first planned. Face to face engagement became the driver to social media rather than the other way around.  Extensive trialing and implementation of social media and web2.0 based tools for consultation. This included development of the GEEYOUNG PROJECT brand and social media plan and then moderation of website and social media engagement by young people.  Peer-to-peer consultations were supplemented by consultations and conversations with diverse young people led by the COGG YDU. This enabled engagement of young people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds and young people from out of home care and flexible learning settings.  The consultations with young people by young people were undertaken as an exemplar of how youth participation might be developed on a larger scale – stickers, surveys, conversations and meetings. Social networking tools were used for the first time, and although they did not produce the exponential effect that the team had hoped might happen, much has been learned, and their use should definitely be part of any further consultations with the youth population.  The GEEYOUNG PROJECT team discovered early on that young people want Geelong to offer career and employment opportunities, and a diversity and positive culture and community. It was discovered that many education providers and the business community also want to involve young people in the future of Geelong. Young people then confirmed that they want time, space and support to be involved in creating that future culture and community in Geelong.  At the beginning of the project, it was hoped what became the GEEYOUNG PROJECT would include the development of a ‘youth brand’ that would badge youth-friendly services and activities in and around Geelong. This did not happen as originally envisaged, but the GEEYOUNG Team and ‘GEEYOUNG’ has become a recognisable brand for the ‘youth participation’ agenda and a movement to give expression to young peoples’ voices. GEEYOUNG PROJECT is about young people having a say and creating the culture they would like to see happening (i.e. achieving their vision for Geelong).  The bringing of local business interests and individuals into the youth participation and development process of the GEEYOUNG PROJECT must be recognised as a major achievement. This engagement is important and needs to be maintained in the interim and not allowed to lapse or dissipate.  The education sector was engaged also. This has happened at a school level as well as at a Departmental level. The objectives of the Youth Partnership program intersect with those informing the GEEYOUNG PROJECT.  The engagement of 161 attendees at the Youth Forum on Tuesday 14th August 2012, and the quality and enthusiasm of the input from over 120 young people from over 11 local schools and education programs at the event was a 11 demonstration of the results of the hard work that the team had put in the months leading up to the forum.  Forum attendees identified their ideas for achieving a youth vision for Geelong and embraced the suggestion of working together in an ideas space where they can develop their own awareness raising and positive culture outcome.  The young people’s vision has been embraced by a broader stakeholders forum on 17 September 2012, which was attended by 80 community members, youth organisations and business leaders. Interest in the next phase of strategy implementation was clearly expressed by all. This included offers of spaces and support to allow the next phase to evolve with young people leading.  A highlight at the final forum was presentations by two young business owners engaged through the GEEYOUNG PROJECT consultation process. Their presentations and vision for the future together with attendance from other business community leaders signified that the GEEYOUNG PROJECT process had resulted in a new youth planning membership - The Geelong Business Community and young entrepreneurs in the region.THE CONSULTATION PROCESS The following sets out the extent of the consultation process, describes the activities and provides a record of what thinking and ideas emerged from this process. Reaching out to Geelong’s young peopleOver 2000 stickers were handed out at events in an attempt to coax young people to deeper conversations on the website and through social media. Facebook and Twitter followers gradually grew to over 100 each. Early general consultations were held at existing events:Date Event Location Staff No. of Attending consultations completed 26/1/12 YAAPA Geelong GEEYOUNG Consultation Australia Day Youth Activites PROJECT Team (trial) 12 Area (YAA) (GPT) 19/2/12 My Bloody Geelong YAA GPT 15 Valentine Fest 25/2/12 Pako Festa Pakington GPT 19 Street, Geelong West 14/3/12 Lara Secondary Lara Secondary GPT 40 Careers Day College 24/3/12 Spud Fest The Potato GPT 36 Shed, Drysdale12 14/4/12 National Youth Geelong YAA GPT 10 Week Launch 1/4/12 Blokes Day Out Eastern Beach GPT 416/4/12 BBQ in the Lt Malop Street GPT 8 Mall: Youth Week Total: 144 celebrationConsultations expanded into more purposeful locations - with a focus on securing great diversity of participation. The YDU were engaged and briefed on the project and carried out some consultations with and on behalf of young people19/4/12 Newcomb Newcomb GEEYOUNG 47 Secondary Secondary PROJECT Youth Week College TEAM (GPT) celebrations 3/5/12 Lara Year 12’s Lara GPT & YDU 18 Secondary College9/5/12 Culturally and North Geelong YDU 17 Linguistically Secondary Diverse (CALD) College young people 9,10,11/5/12 VCAL/VET/VCE Bellarine GPT 55 year 11+12’s, Secondary Year 9’s College17/5/12 Random surveys Geelong YDU 417/5/12 CREATE CREATE school YDU 11 (alternate education) Students19/5/12 Kardinia Church Kardinia GPT 9 Group members United Church Market/ Kardinia Church Gamers29/6/12 CCP “Indie Gig” The Potato GPT 7 –Consultation Shed, inc. Vision2 Drysdale questions17/7/12 Nelson Park Nelson Park GPT 1 Futures Expo School Sub-total: 169TOTAL 31313 The consultations revealed that many young people have positive experiences of Geelong, especially participating in sporting and cultural events and when actively engaged in local learning and earning opportunities. Young people expressed their general life aspirations and some ideas about a better Geelong - a city with a stronger sense of ‘community’, and, a city that truly ‘works together’. Young people value the current education and employment opportunities and want to participate and contribute more to the development of these in their community. They expressed a desire for a community where finding what you need is easier. While there are plenty of education and employment opportunities and services targeting young people in Geelong, there was a strong desire to ensure that they were better promoted and more easily identified by young people.The GEEYOUNG Youth Forum The Youth Forum conducted on 14/8/12 was designed to take previous consultation further by enabling a large group of young people from 11 different local schools and educational programs to explore the same and more questions in a facilitated workshop. Attendees and numbers from each school/Education FacilitySchool No. School No. Students Students Bellarine Secondary College 25 Belmont High 4 (with Cheryl Linford) (With Julia Love) Clonard College 20 CREATE 5 (with Julie Whelan) (with Phil Duffy) Grovedale College 12 Diversitat 5 (With Hyltan Mason) (Narelle Jolley and Stephanie Mclean) Matthew Flinders Girls 14 Newcomb Secondary College 7 Secondary College (Kirsty Woolley) ( Jenny Gibson) Northern Bay 5 Sacred Heart College 6 (Mel Homes and Ellie Prior) (Catherine Gulli) St Joseph’s College 16 The Geelong College 2 (Lauren Huphris) Lara Secondary College 1 TOTAL 12214 The GEEYOUNG PROJECT Youth Forum was facilitated by the GEEYOUNG PROJECT Team of Alex Suwitra (MC), Molly White (MC), Kelly Read (Event Artist) with support from three new Geeyoung Team members: Toby Ford, Sophie Hunt and Tanya Whitmore. This provided insight into other young people’s willingness to join the Geeyoung project Team and direct evidence of the capacity of young people to lead complex processes (following substantial investment in training and support). An outcome of the event included the willingness of the schools and education program and Youth Development Unit staff to organise and support the attendance of diverse students. Participants were asked: . What is working well for young people in Geelong? . To share a moment that had resulted in pride and why? . To develop a vision from the best of their past As is to be expected, participants responded with a wide array of things that are working well for young people in Geelong. Despite a raft of positives, some factors came up repeatedly: . Education options and opportunities . Sporting clubs and opportunities . Headspace & health support services . Music Students from so many different schools produced a dynamic environment. The picture that emerged is of a future Geelong and its young people who are known for creating a happy community - recognised for its celebration and respect of diversity. The clear message from young people present on the day - working in independent groups - is that they see investment in young people facilitating awareness raising with their peers about opportunities in Geelong from a young age as a prerequisite to social, creative and business sustainability in Geelong. Young people described a happy community with a physical and educational infrastructure that supports the development of young minds - places in the CBD where young people can come together and express ideas. Including a focus on the look and feel of spaces and the concept of joining together across school, culture and religious boundaries. Once a vision for Geelong had been established, the question became, “how do we get there?” An important message prioritised by young people was that they clearly see bullying as a great risk / barrier to achieve their vision - and they want to be involved in a15 creating a bully free and aware culture with some of the following elements that they have time and space and place to develop and then deliver: - Campaigns, role models, music and festivals that promote a safer community - One unified community and one future evidenced by schools connection, cultural awareness through education, a significant meeting place that is inclusive of all young people - Being and creating the future they want to seeEngaging Geelong business leaders THE engagement of the Geelong business community in the strategy development process should be regarded as a major achievement. Business people were responsive and the source of creative aspirations for Geelong.  Cr Jan Farrell illustrated importance of building and sustaining community relationships. While Geelong grows, there is no doubt that the Community Youth Strategy needs to continue to involve people who spend time building and sustaining relationships in the community.  COGG Economic Development Unit and staff illustrated the importance of working across COGG work units and their reach into businesses. The Community Youth Strategy will require continued cooperation (and learning) between work units.A consultation with 20 businesses in hearings held over three days. A personal invitation from Cr Jan Farrell was distributed to the business community with support from the COGG Economic Development Unit. The invitation was to attend hearings with the GEEYOUNG PROJECT Team for 45 minutes on either the 26, 27 June or 3 July. Name Position Business Todd Hubers Owner Merevik on Ryrie Ross Synot Business Manager OPTUS Business Leah Ingles Business Manager BIO2ic Jodie Davis Manager All Axis Aviation Nick Stahl General Manager Boundary Bend Olives Brian Maloney Owner BM Legal Anthea Mallabone Early Childhood Geelong Kindergarten Manager Association Wayne Lynch Project Officer Department of Education and Early Childhood Development Clive Pugh General Manager Winchester Australia Lisa Barton Human Resources Vic Roads Manager16 Mark Edmonds CEO FAGGS Mitre 10 John Delorenzo Manager SPE Management Sue Raynor School Liaison The Gordon Justin Giddings General Manager Avalon Airport Raj Marfatia Owner AMG Architects Kim Tobin Director Cavalier Art Supplies Bryan Dennis General Manager Four Points SheratonBusinesses included start up businesses run by young entrepreneurs – the result of a direct approach to young business owners by Economic Development. A feature of the young business group was a desire to contribute and a desire to shape their business to the youth market. This goes to the heart of how young business and potential young business is supported in Geelong.  Jodie Davis - All Axis Aviation at Lethbridge - seeking to partner with schools to bring aviation to all young people  Tod Hubers - Merevik on Ryrie establishing business share space / incubator - at cutting edge of technology based innovation - Game Interface engagement with young people/ vision for City of the Future. Followed up with ideas relating to community ownership and youth branding CBD focussed (business owners wanting to put back into creating a CBD that is informed by and includes young people in the physical design and as members of the business environment Raj Marfatia - AMG Architects - with a desire to contribute to young people being involved in enterprise start up in a CBD revitalisation  Kim Tobin - Director Cavalier Art Supplies - development of youth enterprise as a key feature of COGG Lanes Project Youth friendly CEO’s / Managers of businesses employing significant numbers of young people and with community engagement interest  Mark Edmonds - FAGGS Mitre 10. Part of (Business manager) of iconic locally owned business Involved in current expansion of business into growth area  Bryan Dennis - General Manager Sheraton Geelong with over 80% of staff between the ages of 18-23. Community minded business people with significant community standing including:  Brian Maloney - Owner BM Legal with a track record of youth mentoring and community support Business Managers of significant long-term businesses in region with connections to young people through intergenerational employment including;  Clive Pugh - Winchester Fire Arms - intergenerational employment in business  John Delarenzo - SPE Management - regional forestry  Justin Giddings - General Manager Avalon airport17  Nick Stahl - General Manager Boundary Bend Olives - a big player in Australian olives and a growing company interested in ideas for supporting youth enterprise development The business hearing invitation also attracted representation from the education and training sectors including DEECD and the Gordon.  Sue Raynor - School Liaison The Gordon, provided connection to VCAL in schools.  Greg Leahy Project Officer for Skilling the Bay also indicated interest in the GEEYOUNG PROJECT being involved in the future Skilling the Bay vision project.Outcomes The consultations with businesses achieved significant outcomes including:  New relationship between economic development unit and youth unit in COGG - major potential;  Diverse range of businesses at hearings;  Understanding that many business owners want to support young people into the Geelong business community;  Relationship building with local businesses who want to stay involved;  Connection to aspiring young business owners;  Ideas around a model of supporting young people into business in Geelong;  Interest in forming a business team to support the GEEYOUNG PROJECT;  Engagement of higher education - Gordon and DEECD;  Engagement of a State Government entity – VIC ROADS – and examples of new forms of youth engagement - including an innovative young worker program that is being facilitated through the human resources unit.18 STRATEGIC ELEMENTS Youth Vision An extensive consultation/ visioning process has resulted in an emerging consensus and significant progress towards a shared understanding of what young people are seeking to achieve with their community. The multi-layered approach was bottom up and involved a range of formats and locations facilitated by young consultants, with high-level support early on, but increasing independence. It is worth noting, coming out of that initial consultation was held with stakeholders who participated in the BYSP in November 2011, that the workshop raised the ideas of young people leading the GEEYOUNG PROJECT in five years time, as well as young people opening up spaces that they own and spaces for young people. After training, a small team of local young people (GEEYOUNG PROJECT Team), started consultations from January 2012 at events using a simple survey/ conversation technique. The vision for the future was often influenced by the nature of the event - e.g. music event - more music. But the theme that constantly emerged was about a positive social and economic future. The process sought opportunities to reach out to more culturally diverse young people and commenced a series of focus groups and conversations with the support of the COGG Youth Development Unit. The consultations revealed that many young people have very positive experiences of Geelong, especially participating in sporting and cultural events and when actively engaged in local learning and earning opportunities. Young people expressed their general life aspirations and some ideas about a better Geelong - a city with a stronger sense of ‘community’, and, a city that truly ‘works together’. Young people value the current education and employment opportunities and want to participate and contribute more to the development of these in their community. They expressed a desire for a community where finding what you need is easier. The Youth Forum in August brought together key people out of an extensive prior process of consultation. It resulted in a powerful and shared vision for the future developed by young people. The following vision statements were developed independently in table working groups - the alignment between groups confirmed the growing consensus emerging in the words of young people:HAPPINESS THROUGH AWARENESS We have created a town, which is respectful, accepting, encouraging and creates opportunities to achieve.We have awareness, which creates action, which then creates changes.19 Our community is happier and there is less bullying, raised awareness, more help alternatives, acceptance of diversity, happier people, educated people, assisting those less fortunate.DIVERSITY & CULTURE THROUGH LEADERSHIPA community that respects and celebrates Diversity and difference, by creating a new culture with positive, strong, determined and inspirational leaders.PARTICIPATION & EDUCATION SPACES THAT CROSS BOUNDARIESYoung minds - A place - a design (e.g. treehouse) where young people can meet and express ideas - deep and meaningful conversation and JOIN TOGETHER (schools - joining together to achieve a common goal - create a better Geelong and a better schools environment.One community - One future - more connectedness between schools.We are setting goals.Young people run for government.EMPLOYMENTWe have careers and world-class education.There is social, business, creative, sustainability through awareness.Some of the topics are familiar aspirations. But, young people are not asking for the future to be created by others. They are requesting support in forming the process and structure that will take them a next step. It is important to continue the process, driven by those already involved but then expending out. The generated ideas and community of interest amongst young people will be lost if not harnessed. THE engagement of the Geelong business community in the strategy development process should be regarded as a major achievement. Business people were responsive and the source of creative aspirations for Geelong.  Cr Jan Farrell illustrated importance of building and sustaining community relationships. While Geelong grows, there is no doubt that the Community Youth Strategy needs to continue to involve people who spend time building and sustaining relationships in the community.  COGG Economic Development Unit and staff illustrated the importance of working across COGG work units and their reach into businesses. The Community Youth Strategy will require continued cooperation (and learning) between work units. Importantly young business leaders also shared their vision for a future thinking Geelong. They reinforced the message that young business owners also have a desire to work along side other young people to create a future proof vision for Geelong. Again, whether this vision is about aviation excellence or software technology20 leadership, the common feature is a desire to work with others and to especially open up opportunities for young people to shape a positive and innovative future. Many other business leaders in the community reinforced this goal and have stayed engaged with the process - evidenced by their attendance at the capstone stakeholders forum - where business owners, community stakeholders and the GEEYOUNG PROJECT young facilitators came together and confirmed interest in be part of the next phase of the GEEYOUNG PROJECT. The other key learning is that young people do and will participate in community life with or without the GEEYOUNG PROJECT. This can be positive or negative, cooperative or uncooperative, as separate youth subcultures and groups or businesses or working with others in their community. It is also true that the message from many young people is that while they will continue to commence may of their own endeavours separately and together – that not everything is possible without facilitation and support from the community. It is important to stay aware that the voice of young people is not one clear message but many ideas, nevertheless there are some common themes. The youth forum on 14 August was held as a key culmination event (a line in the sand) for youth to youth conversations and it certainly confirmed the emerging consensus. The consensus was that many young people want to work with each other to develop their community. They seem quite aware of the shortfall in terms of how planning in a single school or peer group might take place. When asked about how they would go about shaping the future of Greater Geelong at the youth forum – their responses were not just about the outcome – but more about the process and space that would enable them to come together. This vision places many considerations at the feet of the young people who have been involved until now and who want to be involved into the future. One of the major issues is to ensure that this does not just all of a sudden become a strategy that is driven by well-meaning adults, consultants and COGG. Young people are not asking for the future to be created by others. A feature has been the high degree of care taken to maintain the original voice of young people. Young people will need to continue to explore the best ways of inviting their peers to contribute to the emerging shared vision. They are requesting support in forming the process and structure that will give them a next step. In the immediate term, there is energy to go on a journey that has been started. This energy and in particular the drive by those who have generated ideas will be lost if not harnessed.Process - Considerations The fundamental outcome and therefore core of the Community Youth Strategy is maintaining the focus on a process of expanding and creating a sustainable network21 of young people who can participate in the process of community youth strategic planning, not as consumers but as creative co-producers and decision-makers. The goal of this process is to work towards a structure/ organisation owned and led by young people – and in the doing so to not lose site of the fluid, free supportive approach that has provided insight into the facilitation needed. And, the fundamental resource for the further implementation of the strategy is an outcome of the process so far – the people who are engaged and who been experienced in the process of building a participatory plan and future for young people in Geelong. The success of the next step, in what is a constructive capacity building exercise, depends on working with those already engaged. Without embracing this basic understanding, ‘youth participation’ lives as no more than a slogan or an aspiration that is never realised. The strategy focuses on living the reality in the present and through the process, by giving sufficient support so that the young participants can increasingly and more confidently drive the process forward. This argument may seem counter-intuitive to some. This is often the case with teachers and other professionals who are trained to exercise various degrees of authority over young people or implement programs for young people. While there can be no doubt that inspired innovations and reforms come about due to the drive of key individuals working in the interests of young people, there is a contradiction if leadership from above becomes a habit of making everything happen from above. A dilemma for youth workers and all those who advocate for young people is that actions from above can easily overshadow and exclude the molecular efforts of young people working from below. The Geelong Community Strategy Plan process has seriously attempted to redress this dilemma by reconciling the two through an uncompromised participatory approach. Conservative thinking might cynically suggest that the strategy process being undertaken is like the ‘inmates running the asylum’ to use a very un-PC 19th century simile or like ‘the tail wagging the dog’. But, the answer to that kind of thinking is to say: Yes - we are suggesting that young people should be deeply involved in planning for their own future and in its decision- making. Stronger communities, more actively engaged citizens and a high degree of social inclusion are the broad outcomes that this approach promises. Another reflection on how far the project has come is that while stakeholders wanted a community youth strategy developed by young people, ‘youth participation’ as such was not an explicit goal of the community youth strategy plan project at the outset. This being so, the project could have gone in a number of directions all called a ‘community youth strategy plan’. However, by remaining true to a genuinely participatory process, the result has been to bring together of the community (those and that part of the community so far engaged) around the common cause and shared vision for the future for young people. By continuing to travel on this journey, the perceptions of young people by others will be shifted and22 the ways that others in the community interact with and support young people will also be changed.Practical steps Secure resources to enable young people to continue to lead the implementation phase of the Community Youth Strategy.  Establish a simple process that will enable those who have contributed to the vision so far to come back together on a regular basis – with a goal establishing youth led development of Geelong culture – which will include a space – not as an end point but as a gathering place to pursue the vision as it unfolds.  Ensure that the process is underpinned by young people being trained and supported to not get lost in the energy, excitement and theories of those who want to join with them.  Actively disseminate the GEEYOUNG Youth Prospectus invitation to other young people and to the business community and social community and government seeking further involvement.  Build an organisational structure that can self support an enterprise that is owned by young people and their community partners – an investment in young people - an INVITATION to young people and to business partners.  And then develop a world class open learning creative space – designed and built by young people – while this is number 6 – it needs to be remembered that it may just be the catalyst to bring all together. Sustainable Structure - Considerations In the development of the Geelong Youth Strategy, ‘youth participation’ is at the very centre of the project and the process. The GEEYOUNG PROJECT, as with The Geelong Project being pursued by the youth agencies and schools, have both come out of the prior work of the Better Youth Service Pilot program and its youth agenda for Geelong. The idea of ‘youth participation’ itself is not new and belongs in the changes in the way institutions and organisations in the late 20th and early 21st century are tending to operate. Human rights and democratic values are important underpinning cultural foundations for consumer and citizen participation in all areas. Thus, in the broadest sense, ‘youth participation is about active citizenship and social inclusion. However, when it comes to youth participation, the acceptance of the notion in principle is much more widespread than its reality. The consultation process has been a successful exercise in capacity-building for ‘youth participation’ in Geelong. Hundreds of young people have contributed and over 100 have indicated that would welcome further involvement. Twenty businesses came forward to support the work of the project and share their aspirations for Geelong’s youth. The GEEYOUNG Youth Forum on 14th August 2012 brought together 120 young people from at least eleven schools and educational programs and produced some strong messages about what young people want.23 In many different comments, made during the conversations and discussions, young people voiced aspirations for opportunities to meet and organise events and activities. They expressed an aspiration to have more control over their lives and the notion of getting together was strongly expressed. Discussions amongst the youth facilitation team and the consultants further processed these thoughts. What follows is some thinking about how these aspirations of young people could be turned into something real and sustainable. For youth participation to be a sustainable permanent feature of Geelong community life, there needs to be an open structure or organisation that actively involves young people from the local university and TAFE, the Geelong schools as well as young people in alternative education settings or in the labour market. The envisaged not-for-profit youth enterprise would act as a crucible or incubator for peer-to-peer learning and youth support in Geelong. Council should consider a youth space somewhere in Central Geelong, not a ‘drop-in centre’, but a place where youth activity and planning for the future agenda can be organised. The Council YDU team could play an important role in facilitating this, along with other mentors and facilitators involved as required. Young people would ultimately run the proposed organisation and the space(s) it occupies in much the same way as Melbourne’s SYN media. The missing link in any serious ambition for ‘youth participation’ is how to facilitate self-organised reproducible activity by young people themselves. Council should consider sourcing some funding for a wider group of young people – ‘youth participation’ activists or youth facilitators, some who could be trainees and others who might be volunteers, who would form an expanded core group that later on would form the basis of the self-activating youth enterprise. There needs to be a modest budget for a strong GEEYOUNG PROJECT web presence that allows young people to manage the content themselves (i.e. a content management website) as well means to develop the social networking via internet tools that have been in this project. GEEYOUNG PROJECT may not be quite the ‘youth brand’ envisaged in the BYSP, but it has successfully become a recognized brand/ symbol for the youth participation strategy work / youth led planning in Geelong. The existing reach of this brand needs to be tested and refined/ applied and further developed. The major focus now should be on planning for how the GEEYOUNG Youth Prospectus can be implemented beyond March 2013. Much of this is already resourced in the existing budget and some of it is about working differently. The next steps are about building on the foundations from the work done to this point, and, this process can happen as quickly or as slowly as resources allow. Central to the Strategy being successful are the following: 24  COGG leads the development of youth creative open space thinking, awareness and planning spaces (that also host activities - driven more and more by young people)  12 -24 month auspice by COGG with planned transfer to youth led governance model;  COGG to negotiate with major governance, project development and vision projects to carry and expand the participation of young people. And to partner in establishment of the centre;  Establish fee for service capacity by the GEEYOUNG Space - running as an enterprise.The following table summarises some of the learning, issues and key themes that have come from the consultation process with appropriate actions and the outcomes that would be sought. Mapping the evidence and outcomesLearnings and Issues Actions Outcomes Governance – the idea Establishment of a GEEYOUNG Short-term: support for youth that youth participation is PROJECT Team function within participation team of young people to not just about YDU - as the immediate ‘go to progress GEEYOUNG PROJECT. participation in youth facilitation team’ for designing activities but about a role and involving other young Medium Term: an increased voice for in Geelong governance people in all community young people in the development and and planning governance, vision and service implementation of the next Council planning. Youth Plan.Longer-term: The youth team becomes the core of a wider group of young activists and participants in youth enterprise and youth space. Continue the Expand current team beyond Expanded core group to set up youth opportunities to maintain core group using traineeships space and youth enterprise. the GEEYOUNG process and youth volunteers The GEEYOUNG PROJECT Continue supporting the Core team expanded and self-acting. has been a learning GEEYOUNG team with facilitation experience for the young and some resources people involved. A Youth Brand was an Retain GEEYOUNG brand as a A generic youth brand developed by aspiration coming out of brand for ‘youth participation’ the time of the Geelong Youth the GBYSP and supported Strategy Plan. by young people during the consultations . The Web – social media Support the maintenance and Active GEEYOUNG website and social tools explored, a lot was further development of the media activity. learned but the potential GEEYOUNG web and social was unfulfilled. media activity. Education and A budget for employing trainees, - Paid P/T employment for youth employment come up part-time workers and facilitators/ leaders; time and again but young supporting volunteers from the - Specific roles and tasks for young 25 people seek greater input young people coming into the people within the community youth and involvement. GEEYOUNG process. plan; - Ongoing involvement of young people, not just episodic events. Space and place – young GEEYOUNG PROJECT teams and GEEYOUNG youth space/place plan. people suggested ideas COGG YDU staff to research the that amount to a youth practical feasibility and financial space. As project thinking dimensions of creating a self- became more acting youth network with its sophisticated this became own space for presentation to the idea of an COGG for the 2013-2014 budget autonomous youth cycle enterprise External fund raising Form a taskforce to plan for A fund to support the development of external funds leveraged against the youth space in the CBD and the COGG investment and The youth enterprise operating it. Geelong Project development26 APPENDIX 1: A GEEYOUNG YOUTH PROSPECTUS / INVITATIONThe GEEYOUNG PROJECT (Geelong Community Youth Strategy) has focused how to deliver a resourced process and structure for supporting young people to be the youth voice and co- planners for all major governance and vision processes taking place in Geelong from now and into the future. The GEEYOUNG Community Youth Strategy requires the development and launch of a two- way prospectus with the following features:  An invitation for young people to continue their new journey: The FIRST audience is YOUNG PEOPLE in Geelong. It is an invitation for young people to get more involved. The prospectus would be distributed to every young person in Geelong schools as well as young people associated with programs and activities outside of schools.The Prospectus / Invitation could be distributed to other interested stakeholders with a cover letter explaining how they could come on board and support the process. A invitation for community, business and current governance / vision initiatives to support the development of a physical structure (space) and buy into the process of having young people create their Geelong and their economic and cultural opportunities.The invitation will include:(A) BRIEF THEORY BASE(B) STRATEGIC VISION  The beginning of a shared vision by young people  The beginning of a shared vision by engaged business members  A process for establishing a youth led community wide understanding of what is being aspired to - VISION(C) STRATEGY AS STRUCTURE • Role of COGG • Governance structure for proposed GEEYOUNG space development(D) STRATEGY AS PROCESS - COMPONENTS • Supporting a collaborative approach between young people and their community (including the business & education community) to achieve a bright and wonderful future in Geelong • At the core of the strategy is a space/s and support for young people to trial, create, meet and build their Geelong. It will be a space and process that gives young people the tools, support and ownership to join in the refinement and achievement of the things that matter to them in Geelong now and the future. The Prospectus responds directly to27 desire by young people to establish a purposeful creative and open space in the CBD, place and time for diverse young people to develop ideas together and create a happier community • The process that takes place in the CBD physical space will be transferable • It will operate as an enterprise - with capacity built to provide volunteerism, paid facilitation work, traineeships and experience linked to local learning institutions • It will be established within current spaces with the goal to establish a purpose designed space under the auspice of an independent youth board The prospectus will invite young people and community to contribute to building the space and process inclusive of:1. VOICE • Proposed ways to enhance young peoples capacity to express their ideas and here the voices of all young people who are involved in Geelong.2. RECOGNITION • Expansion of what is already working such as current Impetus Awards - to include e.g. young business & young workers • Positive media - developing own media3. INCLUSION • Young people in government • Young people planning outside of traditional issues and programs – young people involved in broader social and economic planning4. YOUNG IDEAS & GEELONG IDEAS • Skills, training, traineeships and volunteerism • Development of awareness programs that young people run 5. ENTEPRISE - BUSINESS & EMPLOYMENT • Ideas for developing young enterprise skills and opportunities • Supporting young business people • Business mentoring • Business programs by young business for young business5. CREATIVITY • Spaces to practice passions – music, dance, art • Space to create 6. DIVERSITY • Welcoming diversity in every way • A place that welcomes new young people to the Geelong community7. CBD CULTURE • Contributing to creating the culture and positive reputation of the Geelong CBD • Young people in young business28 APPENDIX 2 Geelong Better Youth Services Pilot (BYSP)- Exerts from Executive Summary Nov 2010 The Geelong Better Youth Services Project (BYSP or Geelong BYSP) was an invitation to community stakeholders to join a journey from a good place to an even better place. The Geelong BYSP has developed a local vision of moving from a cooperative service culture and context to an organised community of youth services (i.e. services for young people, including schools) that works across sectors and organisations. The Geelong BYSP represents a change process in Geelong, but its local findings have the capacity (and in fact need) to inform change at the broader conceptual and policy level. Potentially, the pilot informs a whole of government and community vision for vulnerable young people and how local service coordination might be designed to incorporate a diversity of community visions about how local services can better meet the needs of vulnerable young people … … Phase 1 of the Geelong BYSP has yielded significant outcomes for the Geelong community and its young people. The networks, agencies, practitioners, community members and young people are lined up to design and implement the projects that developed in the first phase of the Geelong BYSP. The emerging Geelong community of youth services has prioritised the creation of a community ‘big picture’ of what everyone is working together to achieve – a Community Youth Strategic Plan. This has been highlighted as the No. 1 priority for action.PROJECT OUTCOMESFindings Project OutcomesConsensus that planning is Project ‘Community Youth - Community indicators fundamentally important. Strategic Plan’ against which various Stakeholders could see that a combined effort to support community plan would include and help young people can be the Council youth plan and knit measured (not just program together the efforts of services specific measures against and agencies across sectors. contracts)A broad consensus was achieved Project ‘organisational - A report on proposed during the consultation process model development’ organisational options and or about stepping up to an Model(s) organised and resourced ‘community of youth services’ (Option c)Only 50% of young people who Project ‘youth brand’ - Greater awareness amongst 29 said they needed help knew young people and community where to go; members of where to go for help; Young people generally don’t under stand the system of - Greater efficiency in support services available to providing timely help to young them. people in need.A lot of effort is expended to Project ‘communications’ - A single shared source of share information – widely seen information via web 2.0 as time-consuming and partial technologies successful; - A social marketing plan for Perceived need to engage in issues to do with vulnerable social marketing to the Geelong young people – the community. ‘community of youth services’ would be engaged in a campaign,No real-time community picture Project ‘data and research’ - Timely data on the number of vulnerability of Geelong’s of vulnerable young people in young people; Geelong; Information and statistics mainly - Local community indicators used for proposals although on the outcomes for workers and agencies aspire to vulnerable young people. better and more timely data.Young people took up Project ‘youth participation’ - Paid P/T employment for opportunities to contribute to the youth facilitators/ leaders; GBYSP process. - Specific roles and tasks for Young people proved capable young people within the with the appropriate support and community youth plan; facilitation of constructive action - Ongoing involvement of young people, not just episodic events.Experience of engaging in inter- Project ‘inter-sectoral - A regular induction program sectoral professional professional development’ for all new workers and development is seen to be a teachers coming into the major contributing factor in the Geelong youth services Geelong achievement – people system; get to know each other and - An annual program of inter- understand more about what sectoral PDs. others workers do. - An annual conference or series of workshops for workers and teachers. Consensus that to go beyond the Project ‘funding’ - A report on funding costings level of cooperation and and options that could be coordination that already exists in considered by all levels of Geelong will require some Government. dedicated resources.30 31 APPENDIX 3 The #GEEYOUNG PROJECT Social Media Engagement Plan Goal: To foster engagement and interaction from young people throughout Geelong during the consultation process (and beyond). Method: Open, but co-ordinated discussion across social media networks, and curated generated content on a central website. GEEYOUNGPROJECT.org / GEEYOUNG.ORG The GEEYOUNG.org website will be the central supporting pillar of the strategy. GEEYOUNG.org will detail the project, gather and contextualise content, co-ordinate timed discussions and encourage further participation. The site will be heavily geared towards a young readership. The site will include: • An energetic outline of the project; • Visible twitter and Facebook integration; • A moderated forum to promote freeform discussion; • Co-ordination of weekly/monthly discussions on set topics; • Multimedia content such as photo galleries and video, ideally created by participants, to provide an energetic environment Facebook + Twitter Facebook and Twitter are well known and already fully developed. Google+ and other similar tools are useful, but it would be better to focus resources on good work in fewer sites. If there is a need for additional media tools or if there is a call for something else, then this decision could be re-evaluated. • Go to stake-holders particularly young people: Rather than attempting to wrestle an audience over to the GEEYOUNG hub, facilitate discussion on platforms they are already using. • Facebook: Create a facebook.com/GEEYOUNG page. Push content from GEEYOUNG there and promote sharing of GEEYOUNG content on the site through buttons at the hub. As the project clarifies particular categories for strategic action, discussions with stakeholders can be facilitated using Facebook groups around a Facebook location for the overall, project. • Twitter: Create the @GEEYOUNG profile to act as a news feed on the project. Promote use of the #GEEYOUNG tag as a way to flag talk on the project. The operator of @GEEYOUNG will retweet all #GEEYOUNG posts and actively interact with those using it to promote discussion. • Take the content generated on these social networks and import it to the GEEYOUNG site. This will cast a wide net while producing a quantifiable base of evidence about the extent of participation and its content. Driving participation Of course, the proposed virtual infrastructure requires participation. The following are32 suggested measures to boost participation. • Advertise the sites and channels at initial gatherings. Drive young people to ‘like’ and ‘follow’ social media profiles immediately by drawing a prize at event’s end from amongst those following. Mobile devices make this quite feasible. • Prizes also work throughout – offer a cinema voucher to the 50th follower, or to the provider of the best video submission. • Most young people in the 12-18 year old group will be in education mainly schools, and a significant proportion of the 19-24 year old group will also be in some form of education. Young project ambassadors could visit schools and put up posters and distribute cards to enable young people to sign up. The aim would be for hundreds of participants. • Create a steering group of young people to form the foundation of the online community. They will act as peer reviewers of the process and drive take-up within their peer groups. Most importantly, they will provide a baseline of participation, traffic and presence. • MoHow moderators ensure comments and posts made on or imported to the GEEYOUNG site are appropriate. Explicit and aggressive materials that could prevent participation will be removed. • A basic rule of social media is be social not anti-social. Communication should be two- way. This will also help draw out more detailed responses. • Invite users to submit photos of Geelong via twitter. Have site visitors vote on their favourites. The assembled work will provide an organic snapshot of what is drawing the eye of local youth. Offer something to the photo that garners the most ‘likes’. Planned discussion Creating and rolling out a schedule of discussion topics will serve as a focus for participation. • Activation of new topics fortnightly. Start with broad topics like “what would you most like the community to achieve?” and use responses to feed more specific lines of inquiry down the line. For example, if a participant answers, “more green energy”, a future question would be “how can we make Geelong more sustainable?” • Hosted topics on the GEEYOUNG site and propagate to social networks. • Consultation responses/discussions imported to GEEYOUNG in a timely way to demonstrate they are valued and in order to promote further discussion. • Accompany each topic with a thread on the forum to provide another avenue for interaction that can continue further than a fortnight. Tools • The use of free, easily available tools allows for a transparent process and encourages young participants to get involved at a deeper level. • Facebook Like button: Embed into GEEYOUNG posts to promote sharing and wider dispersion of material. http://tinyurl.com/4ouapkv • Tweet feed: Provide a rolling, real-time display of tweets including the #GEEYOUNG tag on the GEEYOUNG homepage. http://tinyurl.com/237qdg8 • Storify: A tool to curate social media content and assemble it into cohesive articles without losing context. http://tinyurl.com/426zokl33 APPENDIX 4 Reflections on GEEYOUNG PROJECT A feature of all conversations with young people has been that the three young people who made up the core group – Alex, Molly and Kelly, have facilitated the conversations. Their experiences passed on to others will inform the future work to expand the involvement of young people as leaders in community planning – some reflections in their own words are presented below: The GEEYOUNG PROJECT provided a big challenge to the three of us, but it was one we took on willing to learn from, and to be tested. The experience was something none of us had been through before. Though we had the support of Mo, the Youth Development Unit, and so many other experienced people, we were often pushed in the deep end to figure it all out ourselves, which as it turns out, wasn’t a bad thing at all.When we began this project, Molly could barely speak two sentences in front of 30 school kids without falling to pieces. By the time the Youth Forum came around, she was presenting to nearly 200 school students without crying just to think about it! Kelly had to take on the maintenance of the website, as well as social media duties, and found that the responsibility and the challenges faced in her role were all worth it when she was able to overcome and achieve the set goals. In her own words: “To find out you don’t totally suck”.Being organized is something most young people probably don’t value very highly. But it’s a skill the 3 of us were almost forced to take on, to varying degrees. We are mostly organized people, but the GEEYOUNG PROJECT took this to another level. When it comes to dealing with Government/local government, businesses and other high-functioning bodies, you have to have communications skills and the ability to keep everyone on the same page. Molly became our “Communications Woman” and had to keep track of most of the team’s activity while we all stepped up our game in keeping ourselves in on the action, and this has translated into other walks of life, in our other work and especially at school. The ability to ‘switch off’ at home also stemmed from this, something that we were not entirely good at beforehand, but working on the project it became so much more important.The three of us believe that Geelong is a great place to live, and to have come from. There is so much going on here to make the region an even better place, but it feels like a lot of people don’t know what’s going on, and maybe we need to connect all these great initiatives together and get their names known.From young people specifically, we’ve heard in the street, at events, at schools and at our youth forum about their desire to feel connected. They want to know more about what’s out there if they need assistance, more about awareness of diversity, of opportunities, of ways to embrace cultures and other differences, and live in a community, where everything is connected. 34 We feel the same. There could be some kind of ‘brand’ that would link all of the youth- related programs in Geelong, and be instantly recognizable everywhere, with a heavy online and face-to-face presence. Young people’s involvement is of high priority, but the mentoring component cannot be understated. For example, there could be a website/app (similar to Youth Central, but focused on Geelong) which provides all the information about any service available in our region; even a booking system to get into appointments. But young people can also have control of this website, with dedicated groups or committees running activities/roaming journalism/competitions, working with older students or volunteers in their desired field of interest and also supported by adults. It’s this pairing of ages and skill sets, along with the value of an adult present, where the right balance can be found. So not only is there a place for all young people to go to find the answers to any questions they have, but also to come together and organize these activities or take part in them, or work with a uni student on filming a piece for the site because that’s what they are interested in. Similarly there could be a ‘committee’ of school captains, where once a month they meet with the leaders of other schools in the region and discuss their ideas and that they’ve done in their own school community.We are still young ourselves and we’ve met and worked with so many people we probably never would have met otherwise, speaking for our generation to some high level individuals and giving voice to groups who may often not be heard. This experience alone has shaped us as people, and we would all like to continue down this path of community/youth development. We are all glad we took part in the GEEYOUNG PROJECT; it is something none of us will ever forget.35

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