May Advocacy Wrap Up
Thanks for checking in for our monthly wrap-up of our young person led advocacy efforts around the country. We’ll be taking you through:
- a big win that people with a care experience argued for in Queensland Parliament;
- our latest visits to our partner organisations around the country;
- where you can find recordings from our Voices in Action conference, and
- updates on our latest submissions and consultations.
Queensland Parliament visit with young people
Our Queensland CREATE team had the excitingopportunity to be a part of history in the making. Legislation was amended and a new Bill passed
that puts the right of children and young people to have a say in decisions
that affect their lives into the law of Queensland, essentially ensuring they
will have a voice in the decisions that impact them. To find out more about
this reform you can head to this site.
A group of CREATE Young Consultants were invited to dinner with the Minister of Child Protection, Leanne Linard, and given a tour of the building. It was such a momentous and proud occasion seeing all the hard work of our Young Consultants and the teams’ advocacy work come to fruition.
We’re going to be working hard over the coming months to ensure that this positive message is followed through by the government with processes that ensure the voices of young people are listened to and acted on.
Visit to states and territories for sector meetings and internal team time
CREATE’s very own CEO, Jacqui Reed and National Influencing Manager, Kate Martin travelled across the country to visit with partner organisations and our states teams in NSW, ACT, and Victoria. They met with AbSEC, Australian Community Workers Association (ACWA), Office of the Children’s Guardian, the Public Advocate in the ACT, Victorian Department of Child Protection, SNAICC (the national voice for First Nation’s children), the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, the Education Department in Victoria, and Berry Street Child and Family Services.
These meetings all help CREATE stay connected with important organisations and have an impact on the lives of young people with a care experience.
Consultations
CREATE’s latest consultations have been with the Northern Territory, Tasmania, South Australia, and the ACT on issues like complaints processes, participation in decision making and education. Our team finalised a special report for the Hands Across Canberra initiative on finding housing when you’ve had a care experience. As we release more information on these consultations, keep your eyes peeled on our blog for more updates on what we found out from young people around the country.
Conference Recordings
Head here to access the recordings and sessions from the first virtual Voices in Action for the next 3 months. There are lots of great insights from young people with a care experience and from other people working across the sector, so make sure to
check it out. The recordings are available until the 28th of July 2022.
In particular, keep your eyes peeled for CREATE sessions which described our advocacy positions on many different areas such as: our support for young people during the pandemic, first nation’s perspectives on the overrepresentation of first nation’s children in care, approaches to education for kids in care, and transitioning into independence.
Submissions
At this time we are working on a submission to the Law Society of South Australia who are developing guidelines for the representation of young people in the Youth Court (Care and Protection Jurisdiction). We have recently developed a submission to the SA Government on principles of young people participating in making decisions on things that affect them. Alongside our Youth Justice submissions in Tasmania and Queensland, we will be using everything we’ve learned from young people about how these areas can be improved to inform our current and future submissions.
As usual keep up to date with us on our socials and for more of these e-newsletters coming into your emails.
