Increasing participation

Strategic goal: Young people have a voice on issues that matter to them. 

Pathways to Adulthood Consultation
Over 200 young people aged 18-25 participated in the Pathways to Adulthood statewide consultations through a Youth Steering Group, online survey and facilitated workshops. Young people shared valuable insights into their experiences transitioning to adulthood, and their perspectives on what’s needed to support young people to be independent. Consultation findings will inform YNOT’s Youth Transitions Project.

TYF 2023: Mental Wellbeing & Resilience
Supported by a youth advisory group, the statewide forum and an online survey gave more than 240 young people opportunities to speak about what they need to support improved mental wellbeing and resilience in tough times. 

“I’ve been amazed by the incredible power of collaboration - something that is consistently demonstrated through youth participation groups.”
–    Jet, 16 years

Young People and Gambling 
Through participation in a statewide steering group, 13 young people aged 12-18 years worked in partnership with the state government to guide the development of a statewide communications strategy to address gambling related harms in young people 12-18 years. 

Unearthing the Tasmanian Youth Story
This innovative project, undertaken in partnership with Brand Tasmania and guided by young people 18-25 years, focused on understanding young people’s experiences of being a young Tasmanian – both good and bad. Highlights of this project included in-depth interviews with 98 young people, building capacity of three young people to participate as part of the project team, and working collaboratively with skilled researchers from The20 and UTAS Tasmanian Behavioural Lab. 

“What YNOT is doing for the young people of Tasmania is incredible and cannot thank you enough for the opportunity to be part of it.” 
–    Faith, 21 years

Influencing policy

Strategic goal: Policies affecting young people in Tasmania are relevant, equitable and effective. 

Youth Transitions Project 
UTAS’s Tasmanian Behavioural Lab and Peter Underwood Centre produced the Emergent Adulthood Report, validating feedback gathered from young people about their transition to adulthood. Other activities that advanced this project included a comprehensive mapping of current policies and programs, the Pathways to Adulthood statewide consultation of young people 18-25 years, and engagement with the government and community sectors to understand the issues. This work will guide development of a whole-of-government youth transition Action Plan within the Tasmanian Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy.

“… adulting is a complex issue and transitioning into adulthood is a difficult process … a person doesn't become an adult overnight just because they turned 18 and the transition to adulthood can easily span many years.”
Ipshita, 24 years

Youth Jobs Strategy & Youth Connector Program (YCP)
YNOT’s Youth Employment Alliance, engagement of a Youth Policy Officer based at YNOT and ongoing collaboration with Jobs Tasmania continue to drive work in this vital area. As a result, Tasmania’s young people provided input to and influenced content of the state’s first youth-focused jobs strategy (released for consultation in late 2023). YNOT also continued to support rollout of the pilot YCP in regional jobs hubs and through the Youth Employment Community of Policy & Practice. 

Youth Housing & Homelessness 
YNOT led a coordinated and effective campaign on this issue with sector partners including TasCOSS, Shelter Tasmania, YNOT members and young Tasmanians, successfully bringing youth homelessness into the media spotlight on Youth Homelessness Matters Day 2023. This collaboration sent a strong message to politicians and decision makers about the need for standalone national and state youth housing and homelessness strategies as well as the need for urgent action. 

Ongoing advocacy work
YNOT continued to advocate for the voices of young people to by feeding their input into various government, community sector and industry working and advisory groups, and through formal submission processes including the Draft Housing Tasmania Bill 2022, Tasmanian Housing Strategy Discussion Paper, Tasmanian Drug Strategy 2022-27 Consultation Draft and 2022-23 State Budget Community Consultation. 

Strengthening our sector

Strategic goal: The Tasmanian youth sector is adaptive, skilled and informed.

Ongoing support, information & advocacy
YNOT actively supported funding applications from a diverse number of youth organisations seeking to deliver programs to young people across the State, as well as continuing the coordination of regular statewide sector meetings.  Professional development and training options, capacity building initiatives, information sharing and preparing for the introduction of the Child and Youth Safe Organisation Framework were priority areas for members. 

“I always walk away from YNOT events feeling empowered and ready to put what I’ve learned into practice with my own youth work.”
–    YNOT member & youth sector worker

Appropriate Indexation campaign
In collaboration with not-for-profit peak bodies including TasCOSS, YNOT provided a financial investment and relevant data to support production of a Cost Indexation Report produced by the University of Western Australia (UWA) Business School. We also supported joint advocacy activities to government and decisionmakers.