As the peak body for youth issues in Queensland, YANQ has been
advocating for a systemic approach to the development and maintenance of
the State’s Youth Sector. YANQ believes that a wide ranging, well planned
collaborative approach is required to ensure Queensland has a quality
skilled youth sector into the future. Workforce development provides a
framework for organisations, sectors and the government to approach
sector wide development.
The health and community services sector is the third largest employer
in the state and meeting current and future workforce needs is at times
complex and difficult due to the varying drivers for skilling such as
funding, policy and regulation. Current federal initiatives under the
COAG reform agenda, Skilling for the Future and the Award Modernisation
process outline priorities in workforce management, planning and
skilling and, in particular, meeting needs of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people towards closing the gap.
This section of YANQ's website hosts relevant information and tools to
assist with the development of the youth sector workforce across
Queensland. We welcome any feedback which can enhance the work we are
undertaking and look forward to working with the sector to progress the
recommendations of the research report.
YANQ is committed to making sure the Youth Sector plan remains alive and
is utilised by youth workers, employers, government and
education/training providers in planning processes at all levels.
Further validation of the report’s findings will need to take place
across Queensland to ensure regional variables are identified and to
engage local level partners in shaping local action plans.
There is an urgent need for further discussion and debate within the
youth sector and with government decision makers so that various issues
identified in this research can be appropriately responded to. YANQ
is committed to facilitating these discussions so youth work can get the
recognition and support it deserves amongst the community service sector
and in the broader community.
The Youth Sector in Queensland
This report, The Youth Sector in Queensland (PDF), outlines the conduct and findings of two significant research
projects undertaken with youth services in Queensland. It presents a
summary of themes and possibilities for future actions and research
that have emerged from an evidence base that has not previously been
documented on the profile and demographics of the youth sector in
Queensland.
During 2009 YANQ conducted research
into youth work in Queensland. The Murri part of the research asked
youth workers, managers and volunteers (both Murri and Migaloo) what
they thought were the key values for doing this kind of work well.
The researchers were told that some of the important values
underlying Murri youth work were:
Relevant cultural identity and
life-experience of the youth worker
Respect, open mindedness, and listening
Patience, tolerance and compassion
Working from the grassroots and walking
alongside young people
Providing leadership and role models
Passion
Honesty
This Discussion Paper is about what
youth work actually means in Murri culture, why values are important,
and what difference it makes to youth work to have these Murri values
in mind. Download the Paper here.
We look forward to receiving your
feedback on this discussion paper. Please send your response to
director at yanq dot org dot au.
This report, The Youth Sector in Queensland (PDF), outlines the conduct and findings of two significant research projects undertaken with youth services in Queensland. It presents a summary of themes and possibilities for future actions and research that have emerged from an evidence base that has not previously been documented on the profile and demographics of the youth sector in Queensland.
This paper provides an
overview of current Australian and international youth workforce
skill development and vocational education/training literature. The
aim of the paper is to inform:
the methodology for
the Workforce Skills & Training project; and
the discussion on
the development of the Queensland youth services workforce.
The Diplomacy Training Program through the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales is calling for applications for Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights and Advocacy: a training program for community advocates. The program will be held in partnership with Oxfam Australia in Mt Isa from March 26 to 30, 2012. This program is available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples living in Mt Isa and Northwest Queensland.
The Health and Community Services Workforce Innovation Awards recognise organisations and individuals who are striving to improve the way they work and the services they provide through the adoption of innovative workforce practices. The Awards celebrate the efforts of individuals and organisations who develop new approaches to address challenges and deliver positive results for their workplace. By showcasing these approaches, the Awards seek to raise awareness of innovative workforce practices within the Health and Community Services Industry.
ACOSS is pleased to launch a resource
kit to support the campaign for funding of decent wages for community
sector workers.
ACOSS has been working with the
Employer Reference Group to develop a campaign for funding of higher
wages. The purpose of the campaign is to support the community sector
seeking commitments to fund decent wages from both government and
private sources of funding. The campaign for funding needs to build
support for decent wages in the community sector, in anticipation of
higher wages resulting from the equal remuneration application for
social and community sector and disability workers across Australia,
currently before Fair Work Australia.
Focus on Friendship is a great program of musical entertainment, including visits from local schools is planned for everybody’s enjoyment.Focus on Friendship is a social program for seniors providing good company, wholesome food, and light musical entertainment twice a month. All workshops are held at the Urangan Community Centre, Hervey Bay.
The Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research has now opened its resource section online - with excellent factsheets, DVDs, readers and more. Click here to access the resource page and order for your organisation.
These Good Practice Guides from the Centre for Multicultural Youth provide excellent resources for youth workers working across cultures.
Culturally Competent Intake and Assesment
This Good Practice Guide provides workers with guidance on how to undertake respectful and responsive intake and assessment with young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds.
The new Easy Guide to Socialising Online website provides cybersafety information for 26 social networking sites, search engines and online games, and gives step by step instructions on how to report cyberbullying, abuse and inappropriate content on these sites. It has been developed in partnership with industry and young people to help parents, children and educators combat cyberbullying and inappropriate content online. The Easy Guide website is part of the Government’s Cybersafety Plan and has been developed following advice from the Government’s Youth Advisory Group on Cybersafety.
It also provides clear information for parents, educators and young people on how to adjust safety and privacy settings on websites as well as tips on how to stay safe when using any social media site.
Produced by the SNAICC Resource Service, the publication contains valuable information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child rearing practices. It will be of benefit to anyone who is interested in learning more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child rearing practices and customs. Given our diverse communities cultural beliefs and values, customs and practices, this resource has specifically been designed to ensure that this diversity is acknowledged and respected. Drawing on literature from a number of regions across Australia, Growing Up Our Way provides a sample of this diversity.
Through examining the literature and conducting independent research, this resource provides details of traditional and contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child rearing customs and practices.
The information is provided in the form of key quotes — from the literature and other sources — which have been categorised under relevant headings, ensuring relevant information is easily accessible. Whether you are looking for information on communication and relationships, playing and learning, sleeping and eating habits, or how children are viewed by family and community, this resource provides information on these, and other areas.
Contact
Melissa Brickell E:
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Women With Intellectual and Learning Disabilities – Sexual Violence Prevention Service (WWILD-SVP) was funded by the Department of Justice and Attorney General to develop a free resource to increase the capacity of counsellors and other professionals to work with people with intellectual disabilities.
The Kit includes a book that covers areas such as: the common ‘lived experience’ of people with an intellectual disability; barriers to communication; considerations for counselling practitioners (with advice on ways to adapt practice and techniques to better work with people with intellectual disability) as well as a section for legal professionals. The kit also includes a DVD that looks closer at adapting therapeutic techniques to better suit the needs of a client with an intellectual disability.
FIND OUT MORE: If you or your service would like a copy please contact WWILD on 07 3262 9877. They are happy to post you your kit free of charge to anywhere in Queensland.
The Lifehouse Project has just released a new resource to help you engage and teach young people about the world they live in. You can purchase and download the Ebook from their website here.
The activities all take between 30-90 minutes. Each session plan includes the objectives, resources required and “how to play”. There are also debriefing questions and extra facts and recommended links to help you run the activity successfully.
All the activities are fun, interactive and aim to build the life skills, health and wellbeing of young people aged 13-25 years old.
Both male and female young people will enjoy these activities. They are designed to be run in schools and youth groups but they can also be run with individual young people in mentoring settings.
One year on from the floods that wrecked havoc to many Queenslanders' lives, there are some great resources available to help cope with the mental health impacts of the aftermath of natural disasters. Headspace has produced a series of great video resources for young people, parents and youth workers to help with recovery and resiliance building. They also have text based resources on their website.
Under One Roof is a group of organisations in Brisbane that are working as one united and co-ordinated service system towards ending homelessness in Brisbane.
The December edition of Youth Studies Australia contains articles on sexting, the online habits of young Australians, alternative education and a young engagement program.
Last week, Australian Human Rights President Cathy Branson launched the Commission's new human rights engagement project 'Something in Common'.
This is a project for everyone. They are now looking for like-minded partners and organisations to promote their issues and campaigns. For example, their human rights education page highlights stories of schools doing great things in human rights education.
Contribute your school's human rights education story here. We are interested in stories about human rights education in the community and business too.
This exciting new resource aims to support youth organisations in increasing participation, consultation and inclusion of young people with a disability into their service.
Outlines current thinking and practices on youth participation and consultation.
A guide for youth service organisations to effectively, professionally and safely engage young people with a disability in the work and operations of community organisations.
Covers critical areas of consideration in the development and implementation of youth participation and consultation activities, with practical frameworks and tools to inform practice.
A collection of funny and sad stories which spans 30 years of teaching and youth work by Lloyd and Anthea Martin in the community of Cannons Creek, Porirua, New Zealand. Each story is interspersed with reflections that link practice with theory, drawing from fields as diverse as behavioural sciences, theology, and community development. Click here to read more.
The Peer Skills Workshop is a two day interactive learning experience designed to acknowledge and build on the natural listening, helping and problem solving skills of young people. The workshop helps young people develop their relationship skills and increases their confidence in safely assisting a friend or peer who is experiencing a problem.
Evidence Based Policy and Practice in Youth Justice is a significant collection that critiques the existing evidence base about the causes and prevention of youth offending in Australia and promotes the further development of this evidence base. It draws on Australian evidence wherever possible, highlighting international evidence where Australian evidence is not available or is conflicting.
Youth advocates, politicians, people interested in working with youth, along with existing practitioners in a diverse range of fields require an understanding about the nature of youth offending and 'what works' to prevent offending. The book is organised according to three broad themes that:
provides up-to-date knowledge about the system and major approaches for understanding youth offending
explores the usefulness of alternative approaches to prevent offending, and
identifies the techniques necessary to establish an evidence base to influence decisions and promote change
There is no quick fix to youth offending. Policy makers and practitioners need to critically examine the available evidence and select responses that are most likely to be effective for reducing offending, recognising the multiple contexts in which young people experience risk. This work provides the necessary information and promotes further development of the evidence base so that youth justice systems can better meet the needs of young Australians.
Keeping children safe is one of the most important things we do as parents, educators or other caring adults. To do this, we must equip chidren with the knowledge and skills they need to avoid risky situations and give them an understanding of their rights to protect their own body. Bravehearts is aiming to achieve this through our education and prevention stream, bringing one of this country's most innovative and proactive programs to schools across the country.
This brief, unofficial guide to Job Service Australia providers has been produced by Byron Mulligan for use by Youth Services. It gives a wonderfully clear and concise look at how to support young people in accessing these services and provides links to the relevant sites and forms.
Martin Whitely updates us on debate on medication for psychosis. He has forwarded an article in the Australian newspaper 16 June, which reports that Professor McGorry has withdrawn his support for the inclusion for the inclusion of 'Psychosis Risk Syndrome' in the next edition of DSM5 ( the bible of psychiatry). In addition he now opposes the use of antipsychotics to prevent first break psychosis stating it 'needs to be studied before it's ever advocated.' Read more
World leading pyschiartrist writes that Australia is pursuing a reckless experiment in early intervention for psychosis.
Martin Whitely, MLA from Western Australia has forwarded a link to a blog written by a world leading psychiatrist, Dr Allen Frances M.D, who challenges the Australian governments decision to implement Professor Patrick McGorry's model of early intervention for psychosis. Whitely says his attack on Australia's blind acceptance of this model comes from the very heart of heart of the psychiatric profession and can't be ignored!
In the attached article, he quotes Frances's blog including the following:
McGorry’s goal is certainly great. But its current achievement is simply mpossible and Australia’s plans are patently premature. Early intervention to prevent psychosis requires first that there be an accurate tool to identify who will later become psychotic and who will not. Unfortunately, no such accurate tool exists. The false positive rate in selecting prepsychosis is at least about 60-70% in the very best of hands and may be as high as 90% in general practice. That’s right, folks, nine misidentified non patients for one accurately identified truly prepsychotic patient. Those are totally unacceptable odds. Read more
World leading psychiatrist writes - Australia's reckless experiment in Early Intervention - a prevention that will do more harm than good. The article refers to a blog by Dr Allen Francis, former Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University. He attacks Australia's blind acceptance of Professor Patrick McGorry's model of early intervention that comes from the very heart of heart of psychiatric profession and cannot be ignored.
"McGorry’s goal is certainly great. But its current achievement is simply impossible and Australia’s plans are patently premature. Early intervention to prevent psychosis requires first that there be an accurate tool to identify who will later become psychotic and who will not. Unfortunately, no such accurate tool exists. The false positive rate in selecting prepsychosis is at least about 60-70% in the very best of hands and may be as high as 90% in general practice. That’s right, folks, nine misidentified non patients for one accurately identified truly prepsychotic patient. Those are totally unacceptable odds."
A set of ethics cards and ethics scenarios has been developed in
Western Australia to help youth workers develop ethical thinking in
their work with youth. Anglicare WA, the WA Association of Youth
Workers (WAAYW) and the Youth Affairs Council of Western Australia
(YACWA) have worked in partnership to produce these tools. The tools can be accessed from the WAAYW website. There is a small charge for the cards; however, the set of 10 ethics
scenarios, which can be used in conjunction with the cards, can be
downloaded for free. The cards and scenarios reinforce the WA Youth
Work Code of Ethics Principles but will be of interest to all youth
workers.
On 3 July 2010, the Being Me: Knowing
You human rights curriculum resource was launched at the Victorian
State Community Language Schools Conference. Click here to read the
media release.
Being Me: Knowing You is designed for
11-15 year olds enrolled in community language schools.The aim of the curriculum package is to
increase student awareness of everyday human rights and
discrimination and its impact on people and communities, while
learning to speak their community language.
The resource contains take-home
activities for students to work on with their families. Students are
encouraged to respectfully engage with their family about the human
rights messages learned in class. This is an innovative way of
accessing hard-to-reach communities within the home, described as the
‘kitchen table concept’. The master English version of the
resource is available to download here.
The June issue of the Bank of
I.D.E.A.S. newsletter is devoted to youth development resources from
around the world. It includes mention of several Australian items
too. Of particular interest is a list of four resource kits that deal
with youth engagement and participation. See the heading ‘Australian
Youth Engagement/Participation Resources’ in the newsletter to
download these resources, or follow this link.
The HQCC now has a series of publications available in multiple languages, to assist people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to raise their concerns about healthcare, or access to healthcare. The information is available in languages including Amharic (Ethiopian), Arabic, Burmese, Cantonese, Dari, Farsi, Hindi,
Japanese, Korean, Mandarin simplified, Thai, Torres Strait Creole,
Somali, Sudanese (Dinka), Vietnamese. The publications can be downloaded here.
This Fact Sheet (available as HTML or PDF) dicusses the prevalance of covert and cyber bullying. It also briefly recommends some strategies that schools and parents could utilise to prevent covert and cyber bullying.
The
Foundation for Young Australians rcently launched What Works, an online
resource that celebrates the work of youth-led organisations across the country
and highlights best practice in running them successfully.
STEPS For The
Future is a computer game created by James Cook University
students working in partnership with Region 22 National Disability
Coordination Officer (NDCO). The game was created to provide an
engaging format to convey positive messages to young people
experiencing disability or other barriers to achieving their study
and employment goals.
‘This
is fun and I like you’ is
a delightful thing for those of us who work with young people, to
hear. But there needs to be a lot more happening for a programme or a
process to be of genuine value to a young person.
Youth Advocacy Centre (YAC), a Queensland community legal centre, has recently published
the 3rd edition of "Laying Down the Criminal Law: a
Handbook for Youth Workers".
In this
article, Michelle Blanchard argues that "blocking
access to social networking sites may reduce the risk of any of these
complex issues arising, but it also eliminates the opportunity for
professionals who work with 14-24 year olds to develop their
understanding of the online spaces that young people occupy and to
develop innovative ways of engaging their clients." She goes
onto provide some tips for those who might be new to using social
networking sites or looking to explore their use in engaging young
people.
The Australian Youth Mentoring Network has produced a fact sheet which
provides practitioners with 8 simple prinicples to follow to adequately
support mentors in order to retain a high quality pool of volunteers.
In many regions in Queensland, youth workers and youth organisations hold regular meetings - often called interagencies or networks. These interagencies provide opportunities for networking, sharing information, peer support and coordinating responses to local issues.
Below are the details and contacts for those Networks that YANQ has contact with.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has launched Let’s fight it together, a new teaching resource to combat cyberbullying, which will be made available free of charge to all schools in Australia. Let’s fight it together is designed to equip young people with strategies to avoid, get out of,
or help others deal with, cyberbullying behaviour and to show adults
how they can help.
For details visit http://is.gd/4Yobd.
Source: Youth Fields XPress, Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studie
By David Bennett, Susan Towns, Elizabeth
Elliott and Joav Merrick, Nova Publisher
Challenges in adolescent health: An Australian Perspectivereports on
contemporary developments in adolescent health. From relatively humble
beginnings in a handful of hospital-based services, an energetic and
increasingly well connected group of health professionals has emerged. New initiatives are emerging in the areas of
service delivery, research and training as well as in the development of
professional organisations and networks.
The health and wellbeing of our young
people is critical to the health and wellbeing of our society and of our future,
but in an era of exciting scientific discovery and major advances in medical
care, the health of our young people is far worse than most people appreciate.
There is an epidemic of chronic health issues such as obesity and diabetes,
physical activity is declining and as a result cardiovascular disease and stroke
are no longer diseases of the old and infirm. Risk behaviours such as drug and
alcohol abuse are increasingly common in teenagers and young people are
taking more risks on the road, with an increase in deaths due to road accidents
and more risks in their sexual behaviour, as evidenced by an increase in
sexually transmitted disease. Psychosocial distress and youth suicide levels
remain unacceptably high, particularly in isolated rural communities. This book
developed and edited by four leading physicians in child health and human
development will touch on some of these topics.
Concepts and methods of youth work is the first of three volumes in the Doing youth work in Australia series edited by Rob White and published for the youth work field by
the Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies. It contains a select
range of contributions from the ACYS journal Youth Studies Australia chosen by Professor White for their relevance and practical significance to youth work in Australia today. Concepts and methods of youth work looks at the key issues of youth work as a career and as a profession.
It not only delves into the practical skills and knowledge needed by
individuals, but also highlights the ideological or philosophical
universe within which workers operate.
Australian charities now have access to affordable, effective lobbying tools, thanks to an agreement between DonorTec and NewsMaker.
DonorTec
members can now use NewsMaker’s “social PR” wire service to
self-publish press releases in a news format and distribute the release
to NewsMaker’s subscribers and social networks, free of charge.
Literacy and numeracy skills are vital to ensuring children have
the best chance to succeed in their schooling and life. A new suite
of parent resources, Achieving with Literacy and Numeracy, has been
developed by Education Queensland to assist parents with their children's literacy and
numeracy skills.
This report, 
Download the Research Methodology here 
The new Easy Guide to Socialising Online website provides cybersafety information for 26 social networking sites, search engines and online games, and gives step by step instructions on how to report cyberbullying, abuse and inappropriate content on these sites. It has been developed in partnership with industry and young people to help parents, children and educators combat cyberbullying and inappropriate content online. 
and Torres Strait Islander child rearing practices. It will be of benefit to anyone who is interested in learning more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child rearing practices and customs. Given our diverse communities cultural beliefs and values, customs and practices, this resource has specifically been designed to ensure that this diversity is acknowledged and respected. Drawing on literature from a number of regions across Australia, Growing Up Our Way provides a sample of this diversity.
STEPS For The
Future
