'My Voice in My Hands' was a program focused on shaping the agenda for active community citizenship for the next 30 years. The City of Unley was successful in receiving a Youth Voice Grant from the Commissioner for Children & Young People to support this program.
The first session saw students from Concordia College, Glenunga International Highschool, and Urrbrae Agricultural Highschool collaborate and workshop ways to empower and progress youth voice in democracy.
The second session had these students meet with expert guests who gave these students time to share their ideas and provided their feedback and perspectives to further refine these ideas.
The students work in the two sessions culminated in a report outlining the student's exploration of their ideas. The report, which can be found here(DOCX, 3MB), will be presented to council by select students representing each of the schools in early March 2025.
During the two sessions, students also had the opportunity to raise and vote on each other's ideas regarding youth involvement in democracy through pol.is. Based on this, the students developed five main recommendations:
- School based opportunities to be active citizens
- More education to learn about democracy
- Develop a direct youth voice to parliament
- Establish more ways to get our voices across
- Establish a dedicated youth body with decision making powers
These recommendations were used to shape the agenda for the final part of the program, which was a forum guided by an eminent panel of experts and select student representatives. The forum focused on the steps to progress a transparent, engaged and active community where voices are heard and actions are delivered.
Similar to the students' workshops, the audience was also invited to use pol.is to share and respond to each other's ideas. This time, their five most highly voted recommendations were:
- Increase youth engagement in the planning of forums and events
- Incorporate active citizenship as a subject in high school
- Establish more opportunities in schools to participate in different democratic processes
- Teach youth the different levels of public office and develop clearer links between engagement and outcome
- Establish ways for politicians to engage youth perspectives
The event was produced in association with the Don Dunstan Foundation, democracyCo, The Centre of Democracy, Global Shapers Adelaide Community (subset of the World Economic Forum), our local High schools and supported by Goodwood Theatre and Studios.