Young Resilient Change Agents
YOUTH VOICE IN DISASTER RESILIENCE
Young Change Agents’ work is centred around building youth resilience, confidence, and providing platforms for them to share their ideas and perspectives with different stakeholders. Young people will be impacted by the decisions made today, and it’s important to us that they are in the rooms where decisions are made and discussions about the future are being held.
In early 2023, our CEO and Co-Founder, Margaret, took a multi-school youth delegation of 15 from the North Coast of NSW to the 2022 Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Brisbane. This was hosted by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience and convened by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Two of the students, Jasmine and Ariella, who were personally affected by the North Coast floods in February 2022, spoke in front of a panel of United Nations and Red Cross representatives about the loss of their homes, schools and community connections.
The youth delegation spoke with Senator Sheldon (pictured left) and shared their views and ideas on youth engagement in disaster risk reduction. The students joining the delegation from Living School in Lismore also shared their original song, “Climate Change Your Tune”, which is a call to action by youth on climate change.
“We are often told by adults that our voice is important, our experience is valuable, that we can be the change that the future needs. If this is true, how is our voice and experience going to be authentically and actively sought out and included when you are preparing for the disasters that we know are likely to come and impact our future?”
Youth participant