Mosman Council Youth Services is committed to helping young people feel that they belong in their community.
One specific area that has been targeted in the past few years, with the help of Council’s youth consultative body – the Mosman Youth Forum – is the relationship between young people and local businesses.
This has previously been difficult because young people believed that a youth-friendly culture was lacking and businesses felt that young people tended to spend much of their recreational time outside of the municipality.
Youth Services has addressed the problem successfully through the MOSCARD initiative, a youth membership card that offers exclusive discounts and special offers at local Mosman businesses.
It provides local businesses with an opportunity to show young people that they are indeed youth-friendly and encourages young people to spend more recreational time in Mosman.
Launched in 2014, the membership base has now expanded to include over 690 members between the ages of 12-25 years.
A fortnightly e-newsletter further connects young people to their local businesses by advertising youth-friendly opportunities and events held in Mosman.
Mosman Council Youth Services continues to build on this initiative and other local collaborations with businesses to strengthen the link between the youth of Mosman and its business community.
One recent development was the partnerships developed with a number of local businesses to offer local young people the inaugural Market for Your Mind in Mosman in celebration of World Mental Health Day.
This day saw the local business community with specific focuses on nutrition, health and wellbeing or food and beverages connecting with the youth community over the key issue of mental health.
Young person Nicky Hughson said of the event, ‘I think the event promoted positivity and inspired young people to make the change they want to see in their lives’.
Mosman Council Youth Services believes that this event will also act a milestone in the developing relationship between these two diverse sub-communities of their local government area.
