Youth Action Strategy

The Youth Action Strategy (YAS) aims to increase the number of young people in regional and rural Victoria who feel connected to their local community. It supports opportunities for young people to have a say in the future direction of regional Victoria.

The Strategy is based on research findings that young people who feel connected to their regional and rural communities are more likely to remain in them or return to them.

The Youth Action Strategy will focus on building the capacity of local councils, community-based services and youth advisory groups in rural and regional Victoria to get more young people involved in determining the direction of their communities.

There are five key components to the Youth Action Strategy:

Reaching out to rural young people: City of Greater Bendigo, Swan Hill Rural City Council and City of Greater Geelong have been funded to research models of service access for young people living in rural communities outside key regional service centres.
Rural and Regional Youth Inclusion: 25 one-off grants of $30,000 will be awarded to rural and regional local government associations (LGAs) over a five-year period to support local governments engage and consult with rural and regional young people.
'How to' workshops: These provide training to service providers on a range of topics relating to youth participation and training young people in advocacy.
'Know-how' resources: This is good practice sharing through two regional conferences and resource development on youth participation and engagement.
Increasing participation by rural and regional young people in Victorian Government decision making.

Reaching out to rural young people
Information on how the City of Greater Bendigo, Swan Hill Rural City Council and City of Greater Geelong have each received funding from the Office for Youth to undertake research into models of service access for young people who live outside of key regional centres.
Increasing participation by young people in decision making
Initiatives by the Victorian Government in engaging young people and encouraging participation by young people in decision making and having their voices heard.