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 document outlines the methodology for the research component of the Youth Sector Workforce Skills & Training project.

 Download the Research Methodology here 190.54 Kb (http://is.gd/2kBfo).

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.

 Download the Literature Review here. 693.91 K (http://is.gd/2kAN2).

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.

It's with great excitement that YANQ can now announce that after two years of lobbying we have secured funding from the Department of Communities' Office for Youth and the Department of Education and Training to develop a Youth Sector Workforce Development Strategy. 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 well into the future.

This project will examine the current state of affairs in the youth sector - who is the sector, what skills currently exist, what skills will be critical to meet future needs? It will inform how the sector can prepare for the future through attracting, retaining, developing and training a skilled workforce. This landmark project creates the platform to ensure a vibrant and sustainable youth sector workforce that protects and promotes young people's rights. 

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 is just a start, please send us your suggestions and we'll add them to the list below:

Brisbane Rape and Incest Survivors Support Centre - online resources and others relating to sexual assault

Brisbane Youth Service - health and other resources for sale, particularly for working with young people experiencing homelessne

Community Living Association Inc. - publications for purchase on a range of topics including disability, community development, etc

Family Planning Qld - education, training and resources around sexual health

Please send us your suggestions and we'll add them to the list below:

British Youth Council

European Youth Forum

"Guide to needs assessment for youth", University of Victoria, School of Child and Youth Care, Canada

Please send any additional suggestions and we'll add them to this list:

KNOWLEDGE OF LEGAL AND JUSTICE SYSTEMS AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S RIGHTS

(Critical knowledge and skill area 10 for General Youth Workers - YANQ Report - Youth Sector in Qld 2010)

1. Youth Advocacy Centre - legal publications, fact sheets and training for youth workers, including "Laying Down the Criminal Law for Youth Workers"

2. Logan Youth Legal Service - legal information for youth workers and young people

3. Lawstuff - National Children's and Youth Law Centre

Send your suggestions and we'll add them to this list.  Stay connected to research and practice of youth work. Suggestions include:

Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies - from this site you can:

- subscribe to Youth Field Express (email bulletin),

- subscribe to the Australian Youth Information Network

- subscribe to the journal - Youth Studies Australia - in hard copy or can be accessed through databases on line

- purchase Youth Work text books, access academic articles, get updates on youth field issues and latest research reports, you can search by topic

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.

Read the Fact Sheet online or download it from http://is.gd/aXsJP.

The Fact Sheet was published by Australian Institute of Criminology in February 2010.

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.

Presentation by Eva Cox, Centre for Policy Development, at the Youth Action and Policy Association (YAPA), NSW Youth Work Conference 2009

Content:

- Instant guide for policy making

- Where do you find "the policy"?

- Where do the ideas for government policies come from?

- How is policy established and changed?

- Role of stakeholders

- Handy hints

- Putting up policy proposals

- Useful websites

Editors note: Queensland version of useful websites -

Queensland Legislation

Contact details for all Queensland Government Departments

Contact details for Queensland Government Other Agencies

Presentation by Jess Nichols, UTS, at the Youth Action and Policy Association (YAPA), NSW Youth Work Conference 2009

Agenda:

- What are social networks?

- the benefits of using social networks

- setting up social networks

- commonly used social networks

- managing social networks

Processes and programmes: fun AND useful- Getting the balance right

Presentation by Peter Slattery from the Youth Action and Policy Association (YAPA),  NSW Youth Work Conference 2009

ABSTRACT

‘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 3^rd 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.

Read the full article online at http://is.gd/7c8Ws.

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.

The Australian Government has developed an online game as part of the Don’t Turn a night out into a nightmare national binge drinking campaign that encourages teenagers and young adults to think about the choices they make about drinking.

The game is designed to encourage young people to understand the repercussions of binge drinking. You can find it at http://is.gd/59mzh.

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 Perspective reports 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.

For details on how to get a copy, visit the publisher's website at http://is.gd/4YmeI.

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.

For further information, visit: http://www.acys.info/publications/books/doing_youthwork_series_1.

Source: Youth Field Xpress, Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies

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.

Read the full report at http://is.gd/4NtPT.

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.

The "Is your high getting you low?" campaign (www.highsnlows.com.au) has launched the fourth and final animated film in the campaign series entitled 'Is cannabis messing with your head?'.

This plain-language Community Guide is designed to assist Aboriginal people and communities wishing to partner with researchers who wish to learn about their cultural background, traditions and other information held by the community.

The "Is your high getting you low?" campaign has launched the third animated film in the campaign series, as well as an online interactive short quiz titled "How is cannabis affecting you?".

Irish medical researchers have found one in five children who deliberately harm themselves do so again despite medical intervention, and 10 per cent of them do so repeatedly. The study stresses parents who express concern about children self-harming are often right and need to be listened to.

In March 2009 the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) released the Australian Alcohol Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol. In response, the Australian Drug Foundation (ADF) has updated the alcohol guidelines information in our resources. These updated resources are now  available in the new Winter 2009 ADF resource catalogue at http://is.gd/zjLK.

This is a workbook and resource developed by Family Drug Support and published by the Australian Drug Foundation. It is aimed at families coping with problematic drug use by loved ones to help people turn crisis into coping.

For further information, ph: 1300 858 584 or go to http://is.gd/mYuv.

Source: Youth Field Express, Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies

SO: Spaced Out, is a board game that aims to raise awareness about the link between substance use and mental health problems. The game was designed predominantly as a tool for workers supporting young people who are dealing with substance abuse. Its goal is to convey knowledge and generate discussion so young people can make informed choices about substance use.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has launched 'Let's Talk About Rights', a toolkit to assist organisations and individuals participate in the National Human Rights Consultation. 

The National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre (NCPIC) has developed a range of useful resources on cannabis and cannabis use.

Just over one year ago (13 February 2008), the federal government fulfilled one of the main recommendations of the 'Bringing them home' report by issuing an historic apology to those affected by these previous policies of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their families.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has produced a range of resources to assist in educating young Australians around the issues.

The National Child Protection Clearinghouse have updated Resource Sheet No.3 "Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse". The resource sheet provides a discussion of mandatory reporting as well as a description of who is required to notify, what is to be notified, and a reference to the relevant child protection legislation for each Australian state or territory.

To get a copy of the the resource sheet visit www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/sheets/rs3/rs3.html.

Source: PeakCare Queensland

By Nicola Brackertz and Denise Meredyth, Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology

This report is intended as a practical resource for local councils wishing to engage their communities in decision making and planning.

The 'Not so straight' website has been created by the Mountains Youth Services Team in New South Wales to provide young people with information and support about sex and sexuality. It contains links to both online and 'real world' services, answers frequently asked questions about sexuality, sex and safer sex, and gives information about homophobia. See: http://www.notsostraight.com.au.

Source: Youth Field Express, Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies

To help alter the perceived binge drinking culture among young people, Equipe Industries, as providers of adolescent life skills training in Western Australia, have produced an educational DVD resource for classroom use to reach those in their early adolescent years.

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.

The Australian Drug Foundation has recently released two foldout brochures that provide alcohol information to young people. A young lady's guide to alcohol and A young gentleman's guide to alcohol include eye-catching illustrations and straight-forward harm reduction information about binge drinking and the different risks of drinking for young women and men.

The DrugInfo Clearinghouse has published a number of resources on amphetamine that look at local and national programs, research into primary, secondary and tertiary interventions, and provides a range of fact sheets that are aimed at young people, families, employers and workers.