UN Youth Ambassadors quest to talk to 25 000

youth

The 2015 United Nations Australian Youth Representative, Shea Spierings, has
set a goal of engaging with 25 000 Australian youths as part of a four month trip
around Australia beginning in May.
Mr Spierings plans to spend a few weeks in each state and territory travelling to
both central and regional communities to talk to young Australians about the
issues they face.
The findings of the expedition will be used to write reports for policy makers on
the most prevalent youth issues and will be presented at the 70 th sitting of the
UN general assembly in New York in September.
The 24-year-old has been involved in many local community initiatives, worked
with the local indigenous community in Brisbane and even refined policy with the
federal government while at university.
Mr Spierings says he hopes to be a soundboard for Australian youth and work
with policy makers at all levels to address the needs of Australian youth.
Its important that the people who are actually in the position to draft up policy
and enact it are actually listening to the people that theyre making the policy for
and avoid any prescriptive policy making, he said.

With the Intergenerational Report being released last month, youth issues are
taking the spotlight all over the country.
Senator the Hon Scott Ryan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for
Education and Training today launched the 2015 National Youth Week.
National Youth Week has run annually since 2000 as a joint initiative between the
Australian, state, territory and local governments, and aims to celebrate the
achievements of young Australians. It will run from Friday 10 April to Sunday 19
April in 2015.
National Youth Week encourages all Australians to celebrate youth, to
recognise the positive contributions that young people make to their
communities and provides opportunities for all young people to voice concerns or
issues relevant to them, Senator Ryan said.
But despite the attention, problems continue to persist.
In particular, youth unemployment in Australia the past three months has been
the highest it has been since 1998 with an average of 14.2 % unemployment in
January this year, and getting as high as 20% in Queensland hotspots.
In its 2014 Youth Survey of almost 14 000 youth, community service organisation
Mission Australia identified a concerning gap between what young people
aspire to and what they believe is achievable.
When we asked young people what was most important to them personally,
achieving career success and being financially independent came out on top,
Mission Australia CEO Catherine Yeomans said in the report.
Yet when young people who placed high importance on these aspirations were
asked which they felt they were likely to achieve, only around 60 per cent
believed career success or financial independence were actually attainable, she
said.
Mr Spierings has similar concerns, and says his journey will be very important to
him personally as well.
I was raised by my mother in an area where people suffered from persistent
economic disadvantage and I saw the lack of opportunity but more the lack of
awareness of opportunities that people experience, he said.
So for me its about either making sure that people have access to opportunities
growing up or theyre at least aware of the opportunities available to them.
Mr Spierings is also seeking sponsorship for his cause.
You can follow Sheas journey on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/UNYouthRep or Twitter:
(https://twitter.com/sheaspierings).

To find out more about National Youth Week, please visit

http://www.youthweek.com/