Earlier this week I had the privilege of meeting up with the young people who will be speaking on the Young People’s Panel on ‘What makes a difference when working with young people’ at the CIP Forum in Canberra. Their generosity of spirit is both immense and intense. Whilst their respective journeys and personalities are distinctly different, they do share the bond that having lived a life where they were often let down by the adults around them brings. Yet they were all willing participants in the conversation and the upcoming panel because they are motivated by the unselfish intention to do whatever they can to ensure that other young people who find themselves in situations such as theirs don’t have to go through what they went through. Each of them is powerful, persuasive and passionate and I want to extend my thanks to local youth workers/coordinators Hannah, Zakia, Daniel, Kayla and Dot for introducing me to these incredible young people and helping me bring this lived experience panel to life. If you are coming along to the CIP Forum next week, I am looking forward to seeing you – as are all the FRSA staff who will be there.
FRSA’s submission to the DSS Review of Children, Youth and Parenting Programs – Discussion Paper is available on our website. My thanks to our members who engaged in our consultation processes to help inform FRSA’s contribution to the Departmental Review. We also made a brief contribution to the Federal Government’s pre-budget submission process, which is also available on our website.
Just a reminder that our FRSA Conference 2025 registrations are open. Don’t forget about the pre-Conference workshops that have been extremely well attended over the last couple of years. We have mixed things up a bit this year with a slight shift in subject matter being presented by AIFS. Our First Nations workshop is being delivered this year by Gawura Cultural Immersions, which is headed up by former network member Stuart McMinn. Stuart is helping us out with a number of cultural activities during the Conference and we can’t wait for the opportunity to be working with him and his team.
