Queensland is the only State in Australia that locks up 17 year olds in Adult (rather than juvenile) prisons.

After 15 years of inaction, it is time to STOP locking up children in Queensland's Adult prisons and time for the Juvenile Justice system to include 17 year olds.

Download the campaign kit (PDF)for more information.

The official name of this new online archive is Photographic Youth Music Culture Archive (PYMCA); it has been under development for the past 10 years, and offers the world’s ‘leading youth culture research site’.

The site covers youth culture around the globe from the past 70 years and offers a huge array of information from images, essays and text to videos and links. It will be of great use to researchers looking at subcultures, social history and youth trends as well as to interested youth workers, educationalists and to anyone with an interest in youth culture generally. Leading cultural commentators and organisations have contributed to the detailed analyses of ‘youth subcultures, music and movements from around the world’.

The National Child Protection Clearinghouse, which is part of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, has just published a new resource sheet called Effect of child abuse and neglect for children and adolescents. It outlines types of abuse and their consequences, and has a useful list of reference articles.

The resource sheet is available for download from: http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/sheets/rs17/rs17.html

Improving the wellbeing of Indigenous children is a national priority and the key to ‘Closing The Gap’ in a generation. Play your part by joining us at this year's Early Childhood Development in Indigenous Communities Conference which will showcase existing successful initiatives, sharing best practice for integrated services which help ‘Close The Gap’ on child disadvantage. It will also assess progress made under the National Partnership for Early Childhood Development and identify key priority areas to improve service delivery and community wellbeing.

YANQ calling for a Youth Disability Advocacy service in Queensland

The Youth Affairs Network of Queensland (YANQ) has been talking to our colleagues in the disability services area about establishing an advocacy service for young people with disabilities. Below is our initial proposal for the service, which for now we are calling 'Youth Disability Advocacy Queensland'. YANQ is in the process of seeking support for this proposed service and would welcome your advice and support.

Child Protection Australia 2008-2009 contains comprehensive information relating to state and territory child protection and support services, and the characteristics of Australian children within the child protection system.

The Hon Kate Ellis MP, Minister for Youth, has recently released the Youth Budget Statement 2010-11.  It outlines how the Australian Government’s recent budget includes good news for young people and draws links between budget measures and the vision set by the recently released National Strategy for Young Australians.

The 2009 National Survey of Young Australians, conducted by Mission Australia, tested the views of close to 48,000 young people – the biggest group since the survey began in 2002 – between the ages of 11-24 (97.9 per cent aged 11-19).

Drugs, suicide and body image were the most common concerns raised by young people in the survey.

The Australian Drug Foundation (ADF) produces information and resources that can help students and families prepare for schoolies week. The ADF's DrugInfo Clearinghouse offers many free resources about teenage parties, many of which can be downloaded from the DrugInfo website at http://tinyurl.com/6d5yem.

Registration for the ROCKhampton351 music camp from 26th to 29th June 2009 are open. Email info@mmad.org.au for more information and flyers.

The Parliamentary Library produces a Monthly statistical bulletin (ISSN 1835-6389), updated each month by the Parliamentary Library's Statistics and Mapping Section at http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/MSB/. It contains a selection of the latest economic and social statistics and is issued during the first week of each month. It contains statistics available on or before the day of release. All figures are original data unless otherwise noted. Section 1.5 of the bulletin provides an overview of youth unemployment: see: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/MSB/15.htm.

Source: Youth Field Xpress, Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies

by Kylie Hillman, Sheldon Rothman, October 2008. (LSAY research report n.53)

This report is part of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth analytical program. The report examines young people's use of career advice activities while at school and their perceptions of the usefulness of that advice. The data are from the 2003 15-year-old cohort of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY).

The 'ARACY Report Card' presents a summary of the wellbeing of Australia's young people. It provides an international perspective and sets a baseline for future monitoring.

How Young People are Faring 2008 provides information on how successfully our education and training system is working to meet the needs of young Australians as they make the transition from school to further study and work. It provides up-to-date analysis of the effectiveness of transitions, including information on who is doing well and who is not doing so well in negotiating the various post-school pathways.

The report has been published by the The Foundation for Young Australians in alliance with the Education Foundation .

This report, published by the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare, delivers the latest and most reliable information on how, as a nation, we are faring according to key statistical indicators of child and youth health, development and wellbeing.

The Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies (TILES) and the Department of Rural Health at the University of Tasmania have recently conducted the first major Australian trial of the ‘social norms’ approach to health promotion. The results are outlined in a briefing paper by Clarissa Hughes and they provide some useful insights into the application of the Social Norms approach.

Download the Social Norms Analysis Project Results, insights and future priorities from http://tinyurl.com/4vgdc9 (PDF).

The Inspire Foundation (www.inspire.org.au) has recently released a new research report titled 'Young people's perspectives on taking action.'  The report argues that the phrase "taking action" to marginalised young people means something quite different to traditional definitions of social and political participation.