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What do we do?
The Commission Youth Council brings youth voice and a lived experience lens into the Commission’s work, through weekly meetings, advocacy and projects. An example of our work is co-developing and co-facilitating online youth forums with young people from across Victoria; including forums about the impacts of COVID-19 and experiences leaving out-of-home care.
As well as connecting the Commission with children and young people, we have input into the work that we’re interested in and create spaces for others to be involved. We develop ideas and content for social media and provide feedback on documents, adapting them to be accessible for children and young people.
Why is our role important?
We believe that children and young people have an important role within the Commission to work alongside staff in areas that affect us and are about us. We support the Commission to be more accessible for children and young people.
Who is the Youth Council
The Commission Youth Council is made up of a small group of young people with diverse experiences, aged between 15 and 24.
Youth Network
The Commission has recently established a Youth Network. This network is to enable more young people from across Victoria to share experiences and have a say about things that are important to them. The network plays a role directly in Commission work, as well as enabling the Commission to connect with a wider range of children and young people, getting greater diversity of perspectives and lived experience to influence the Commission’s work whilst building the capacity of young people.
Interested in joining the Commission's Youth Council?
The Commission is always interested in hearing from young people who want to join our Youth Council. Some of our members have joined after being involved in our work in different ways but we also have a more formal intake process which is in July. You can express your interest any time up to 30 June via email to engage@ccyp.vic.gov.au.
If you decide to email we’d love to hear your answers to the following:
- Why are you interested in joining the Commission’s youth council?
- If you could change one thing for children and young people in Victoria – what would it be?
- Have you had any experience on youth advisory groups in the past?
- Anything else you want us to know about you?
Two of our biggest priority work areas are oversight of Child Protection and Youth Justice. We encourage young people who have lived experience of these systems to express interest and have their voices heard.
We’ll review all expressions of interest in July and be in touch
As well as receiving expressions of interest to join the Youth Council, the Commission is committed to providing other avenues for young people as we connect through various channels.
If you would like to join our broader network of young people, and receive updates from us via email, join our youth mailing list by emailing engage@ccyp.vic.gov.au and request to join the youth mailing list.