Youth engagement
Young people are at the heart of all that we do at Raise. We place much importance on youth engagement and our youth safety framework, and we have a very active Youth Advisory Council (YAC). The primary role of the Youth Advisory Council at Raise is to collaborate with the team right across our organisation, channelling and advocating for the voice of young people in the development of our best practice mentoring programs.
Our YAC is made up of 9 young Australians aged 18-25 years who are passionate about the wellbeing of young people, eager to share their ideas and experiences as a young person, and who are aspiring agents of change in the youth sector. Led by our Youth Engagement Manager, Alana Faust, our inspiring YAC consists of incredible individuals, each of whom brings a wealth of experience and dedication to the youth mental health and wellbeing space. Our YAC members for 2020-2021 are: Angelica Ojinnaka, Cassandra Bentley, Ciaran Foster, Layla Eather, Leonie Nahhas, Lisa Lewis, Gabi Stricker Phelps, Teyarnea Griffis and Vince Chen. The projects they have worked on this year include Raise’s diversity and inclusion agenda, improving our mentee onboarding and orientation process, development of a grassroots fundraising campaign and implementation of youth-led research and evaluation of our programs. The projects and initiatives they have contributed to this year include redesign of our Youth Culture training for mentors, speaker spots on a panel at our Raise Staff Conference, begun development of a youth ambassador program for Raise, provided advice to Raise teams on our rebrand and Explore the Core fundraising initiative and explored how Raise could increase our Youth Participation with a Youth Summit for our mentee graduates and YAC when face-to-face events can occur. In addition to this, the inaugural YAC has co-designed with us the future of the Youth Advisory Council at Raise as we aim to increase engagement opportunities across the organisation and ensure we maximise opportunities for youth participation.
As Raise matures into a major charity in the youth wellbeing space, the YAC will ensure we are in touch and on track with the young people who are at the core of everything we do. We thank our departing members for their time, wisdom and passion for young people and we look forward to welcoming new YAC members into the village in 2022.
The power of showing up | raise.org.au
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