An unusual 2020 did not keep Tasmania’s West Tamar Youth Development team and Youth Advisory Council from achieving the goals set out in the 2020-2022 Youth Strategy.
With Youth Centres closed, Youth Advisory Council (YAC) meetings were conducted online and young people in the community remained connected through the new Youth Website and YouTube Channel.
West Tamar’s first Youth Mayor, Chloe White was inaugurated in December, after the Youth Strategy named empowering young people with skills and confidence as a goal.
The role of the youth mayor is to help represent young people in the West Tamar by speaking on behalf of their needs and identify opportunities to empower local young people.
“I want young people to engage in our community and be proud of it. I believe I can assist in this by raising awareness of the activities our Council provides and to help facilitate these activities.”
The first official duty of the Youth Mayor was to open the new Legana Pump Track alongside Mayor Christina Holmdahl and the Honourable Jo Palmer MLC on Saturday 12 December 2020.
The West Tamar Council allocated $150,000 to construct the Pump Track with an additional $50,000 from the Tasmanian Government’s Improving the Playing Field Grants.
An additional $70,000 was allocated from the Tasmanian Community Fund for the Building Resilient Youth Program.
The program will work with six schools in the West Tamar and JCP Empowering Youth Programs to deliver a series of seminars and possibly a camp, to arm young people with the ability to manage, adapt and work though the impacts of the pandemic, while providing them with skills to face the unknown in their future.
Mayor, Christina Holmdahl, said, “COVID-19 presented an opportunity for schools and local government to work together and invest in shaping the future of the youth of the West Tamar by targeting mental health, and building resilience and relationships among peers.
“West Tamar Council identified that working with schools, holds the key to the largest youth network in the municipality”.
