Young Local Change Agents

Young people are tomorrow's beneficiaries of today's decisions. That’s why it’s vital that they have the opportunity to better understand the complex and interconnected issues and be able to contribute to the future of their local communities and cities.

YOUTH SPEAKS PROGRAM (NSW)

This program was a collaboration between the Greater Cities Commission and Young Change Agents – delivered in June 2023 to empower young people across the region to actively engage with the key issues impacting their lives and communities. The workshops gave the 245 young people an opportunity to develop ideas and solutions that they felt would benefit their communities.

The key areas youth raised as being critical to a secure future were: climate resilient cities, sustainable housing, greater access to jobs, innovation and productivity, and transport across the Cities.

VAPING IN SCHOOLS (ACT)

Vaping is significant amongst school students. According to ACT Health, the brains of young people are at a higher risk of developing nicotine addiction than adults, while most smokers started their addiction under the age of 21. Nicotine can affect learning, memory and attention in teenagers.

In 2022, Young Change Agents in partnership with Refraction Media ran five student codesign workshops for Years 7-9 students from Merici College, Galilee School and Gold Creek School in the ACT. The workshops helped inform:

• What students know and how they feel about e-cigarettes (via empathy interviews);
• The problems and ideas that students have about e-cigarettes (defining the problem);
• What students would use within their school to educate their peers (ideate and validate stages).

These workshops, along with feedback from a teacher survey and one-on-one interviews, fed into a detailed insights summary. This created a starting point to design curriculum-linked classroom resources and Professional Learning, that would equip students of that age group with more information about the impacts of vaping.