Solid Voices of Tomorrow Knowledge Circle
On Thursday 28 April QATSICPP was delighted to host a Knowledge Circle as part of our Solid Voices of Tomorrow project bringing together young people and Members. The purpose of the Solid Voices of Tomorrow project is to
- identify how young people’s stories can be best heard and acted upon in identifying their needs, designing services to meet their needs, developing policies, evaluating services and initiatives, conducting research – focused on organisational and system level rather than casework; and,
- develop a resource to support our staff and our members in engaging children and young people to speak up for themselves and for others in these areas.
The day started with a heartfelt Welcome to Country from Yuggera elder Aunty Debbie Sandy who stayed with us throughout the day contributing powerful knowledge and advice to our conversations. We then opened with the always engaging facilitator Grant Sarra asking the group to reflect on what is deadly about us.
Next, we had an inspiring presentation from nine of the young people, who have participated in the Solid Voices of Tomorrow Project over the past seven months.
The young people talked about what motivates them to speak up, barriers and how to overcome them. The young people shared their advice on the various avenues organisations can provide for young people to have a voice in service development, and how youth can be engaged in meaningful and ongoing ways.
They also gave us insight into their expectations of how their voices and ideas would be utilised, and the importance of keeping them informed about how their ideas have inspired innovation and improvements to service provision and policy.
Following this QATSCPP members and staff reflected on key findings from the “For Solid Voices of Tomorrow Project” and considered and discussed ways their organisations can improve in areas of youth engagement.
An important part of this discussion was organisations thinking about what they need in order to facilitate these types of improvements to the way they do business, including increased funding, access to data, dedicated youth advisory positions and more.
It was heartening for the QATSICPP project team to see the young people’s engagements and participation in the discussions of the day. One of the young people Jaylen was called to the podium to co-facilitate discussions and question time with Grant Sarra. A huge thank you and congratulations to Jaylen for ensuring everyone had a safe space to speak up and share.
Our Co-facilitators
The day concluded with a panel with young people from the Solid Voices of Tomorrow project participants and member representatives to share takeaway thoughts.
The panel of young people and member representatives
One of our members told us they were humbled to attend and be a part of this wonderful project and see the growth of these wonderful young people during their participation in the project. They are looking forward to having a tool to use and perhaps a model for their organisation to use to set up a youth consultative group in their local areas.
We asked the young people what they took away from the day, and here’s what some of them had to say.
“I have a lot of nonsense to undo when I become Prime Minister”
“Everybody’s voices are going to help this issue”
QATSICPP would like to thank QAIHC for hosting us, our members who travelled from around the state to share their important knowledge and wisdom with us, Grant Sarra for facilitating and all the young people who came along to share with our team.
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