Footprints Project
Since 2005, travelers like you have helped us change the world through micro-donations.
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A total of
9008
Travelers
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donated
$30025.61
(100% funded) -
to help improve
Education
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impacting
200
people -
in
Australia
Project Background
At the end of 2015 a report entitled ‘Dropping off the Edge’ identified Claymore as the most disadvantaged suburb in NSW with little to no progress having been made since the last report in 2007.
While children (aged 0-18 years of age) make up 48% of the Claymore population, they have the weakest voice and are susceptible to a wide range of intergenerational disadvantage and poverty factors that affect the quality of life and prospects for children and young people in this area. Significant social disadvantage are preconditions for chronic unemployment and persistent intergenerational disadvantage and poverty, leading to a sense of helplessness and feeling trapped in a never-ending cycle.
Save the Children’s Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) initiative aims to break this cycle by employing young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and empowering them to advocate for and to be role models in the process of positive change within their communities.
Project Aims and Objectives
The program aims, and objectives are to:
- Empower young people to advocate for and effect positive change in their community.
- Equip young people with life skills and cultural values to respond positively to risk and adversity.
- Provide young people with employment skills and certified training to ensure successful futures.
- Employ the young people as peer mentors and Junior Youth Workers to support children in other Save the Children programs.
Project Activities
The $30,000 raised by Footprints enabled Save the Children to:
- Employ 6 young people to work on the YAC for four hours every week of Term 1 & 2 2018 as Junior Youth Workers to learn about community work, mentoring and advocacy.
- Provide a safe space for the young people to meet and share ideas and create events to better their community
- Deliver 6 job readiness training sessions to the young people including resume writing skills, mock interviewing and finance & budgeting.
- Provide one on one mentoring with each young person leading to referrals of all 6-young people to multiple job seeker and community services including Western Sydney University, PCYC and Youth off the Streets.
The young people worked on multiple initiatives over the semester to make changes in the Claymore community including their two highlights:
- Claymore after Dark Program – This was created by the YAC in response to the amount of young people in the Claymore area who were frustrated about not having a safe place to go after school. Claymore After Dark now has over 80 young people attending weekly, participating in various activities including basketball games that require teamwork, communication and compromise; creating digital media products and music production where they are developing their skills and supporting others (peer-to-peer learning).
- Claymore Youth Centre Upgrades – The YAC surveyed members of the community including young people and local business owners to see what improvements were could be made.
- They collated the data and reported the findings to the local council. They themselves then picked two areas to focus on – the rubbish problem in the area and broken sports equipment.
- The YAC installed more bins around the Claymore Youth Centre and organised a Clean Up Day which was a great success, with over 50 people from the local community attending to clean up the area around the Claymore Youth Centre.
- Local stores agreed for them to display posters advertising not to litter in their front windows.
- The YAC also sourced and gained funding for new basketball back boards to be installed and installed a water bubbler.
The young people also invited multiple representatives from the community council and government to meetings to discuss their concerns about their community to make sure their voices were heard about the issues that most affect them.
The representatives from the Council were extremely impressed with the actions of the young people of Claymore and committed to having ongoing discussions with the YAC to work towards actioning ideas from their presentation, including community education and accessibility to waste management.
Youth Off the Streets (YOTS) also showed an interest in supporting the program, and so they now attend the program on a weekly basis.
Project Results
As a result of the program, YAC members reported feeling more confident in their skills. They felt empowered to not only find personal employment in the future but make changes in their own community.
In fact, every member of the YAC reported feeling that they had improved their communication, leadership and teamwork skills.
“When I came to the program I was very, very shy. Now, I have learnt so many skills and I have self-confidence. Without the Youth Advisory Committee program, I would not have gained the confidence I now have to mentor to others and show young people they can be active participants in shaping their community.” – Ashelew, Program Participant.
What Next?
Educate Disadvantaged Youth Communities in Australia is a continuing project.
Can I Visit This Project?
Visits are not permitted at this project.
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