During an interview recently with a young student who attended a flexi-school in South East Queensland it emerged her daily trip to the school took 90 minutes (when the buses were on time). It also emerged that on the way to school she passed several other 'mainstream' schools - the closest of which was just a 5 minute walk from her home. So why does she do that - why put up with a long trip on an unreliable public transport system every day to get to her 'flexi-school', when she could stroll just a few minutes down the road to the local high school?

The Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA) has agreed on a draft Indigenous education action plan (IEAP) to guide the national effort towards closing the gaps in early childhood and school education outcomes for Indigenous Australians.

By David Powell and Tiara Shafiq

A Snapshot of Queensland's Re-engagement Services (PDF) presents the findings from the Census of 'Re-engagement' Services in Queensland, conducted by YANQ in 2008. The aim of the Census was to learn more about what was available in Queensland to support young people (aged 12 to 18) who were disengaged from Education and Training.

Download the report here (as PDF) or read on for a summary.

YANQ has recently started work with the North East Youth Organisations Network (NEYON) on a project to help gauge the numbers of young people under 15 years of age who are not attending school. The project will also investigate some possible strategies to help re-engage this group. Read on for more details of this project (which we'll call the 'NEYON Re-engagement Project').

The Moreton Bay Re-engagement Forum and Expo was held on the 11th of November, 2008 organised by the Youth Affairs Network of Queensland Inc. (YANQ) in conjunction with the Caboolture Area Youth Service (CAYS), Deception Bay Community Youth Programs (DBCYP), Kidz Youth Community (KYC) Consultancy and the Salvation Army Youth Outreach Service (SAYOS).

This report describes how the event came about, how it was planned and how well it achieved its aims. YANQ and our event partners hope that the document will be useful to anyone planning similar events in the future (in the Moreton Bay region or elsewhere).

 Download the report of the Moreton Bay Re-engagement Forum & Expo here 1.31 Mb .

The report was written for YANQ by Caroline Woods.

Photos from the Moreton Bay Re-engagement Forum & Expo (held November 11, 2008) have recently been uploaded to YANQ's Flickr page.  You can find them at http://tinyurl.com/44f87p.

The Moreton Bay Re-engagement Forum and Expo was held on the 11^th of November, 2008. The event attracted over 250 people and almost 100 young people. Keep reading for some more information about the aims and a short highlights video.

BAP, a Hip Hop Group from Caboolture performed their song 'The School of Hard Knocks' at the Moreton Bay Re-engagement Forum & Expo on November 11, 2008. Follow the read more link to watch the video of their performance.

According to young people who attended the Moreton Bay Re-engagement Forum and Expo "fear of violence, being picked on, pressure, disappointment and pointlessness" are some of the major concerns relating to attending or returning to school.

new Transitions Vol 12. N^o. 1, 2008

In January 2008, as part of the Re-engagement Project YANQ put out a call for papers under the topic, From Disengaged to Re-engaged - Young People's Right to Education and Training.  Simultaneously we we also invited young people to submit their ideas via the 'Re-engage This!' multimedia competition.  The outcome of these initiatives is this special, public edition of new Transitions ...

.. and Notes on Terminology in the Sector

YANQ is currently conducting research into the issue of young people's disengagement and reengagement with education and training in Queensland.  As part of this project, attendees at the March meeting for the Multicultural Youth Network of Queensland (MYNQ) were presented with draft copies of a survey tool designed to collect data from and about the multicultural sector to gauge need and opinion on reengagement research and advocacy. While the main purpose of disseminating the draft survey through the MYNQ group was to obtain feedback from the attendees on the tool itself, the MYNQ group also discussed YANQ's reengagement project in general. The following is an outline of the MYNQ group's comments, relating both to the survey tool, and to the topic in general.

Since the Queensland Government first proposed the Education & Training Reforms for the Future (ETRF) YANQ has written a number of papers on the topic of young people disengaged (or at risk of) from education and training.

From Disengaged to Re-engaged: Young People's Right to Education & Training

Over the next 12 months (starting in December 2007) YANQ will be undertaking this Re-engagement project to challenge governments and communities to lift their game when it comes to supporting disengaged young people back into education and training.

During 2006, the Youth Affairs Network of Queensland noticed an increase in the number of organisations and youth workers contacting it to raise concerns about the level of support available for young people who were not involved in education or work.

In response, YANQ undertook this small research project to investigate these concerns and to assess the level and nature of support that is available for young people who are disengaged from education and work. The research focused specifically on young people aged between 12 to 18.

A summary of programs relevant to young people, 12-18, who are not participating in education or training and who are unemployed. 

The aim of this document is to give a brief overview of the range of publicly funded youth services that are particularly relevant to young people that are not participating in education, training or work.