Recently, Queensland’s first Youth Speak Conference was held at Ormiston College. It brought together 35 young decision makers from South East Queensland Local Government, including Junior Councillors from the Cities of Toowoomba, Logan and Gold Coast; and Redland and Maroochy Shires.
The Conference enabled participants to share their achievements, discuss concerns and develop strategies on how to best communicate the ideas of young people to community decision makers.
Guest speaker Phil Heywood, a town planner and Queensland University of Technology lecturer, told the group it was becoming increasingly difficult for youth to get good representation and it was very important for young people to make a stand on what they believe.
“You need to make the revolution right here, because it is the only space you have got,” he said. “And you need to make it today because that is the only time you can be sure of.
“Community planning helps us to achieve the almost unlimited potential of whole groups of people to do things that none of us could do individually, in ways that then make personal planning possible.”
Another speaker, Anita Egginton, who is involved in the development of government youth policy, said people needed to be aware of stereotyped youth images.
“Young people are not only the future generation, they are also the present,” she said. “They need to be valued and given rights and responsibilities as such. We need to be aware of stereotyping and limiting people’s interests, issues, skills, knowledge, capabilities and insights because of their age.”
Junior Councillors attending agreed that the media did play a huge part in communicating and promoting the image of youth. They felt this communication was primarily negative and that more positive images were needed.
They also agreed that young people need to be forthright in representing themselves in the community by becoming involved in community planning and commenting on community developments that concerned them.
The inaugural Youth Speak Conference was hailed a success by both organisers and participants, who felt it provided an informal opportunity for young people to share ideas. Toowoomba Youth Council will host the next Youth Speak Conference.
