Council endorses Horsham Youth Strategy

Published on 29 August 2018

Horsham Youth Strategy.jpg

Horsham Rural City Council adopted its Youth Strategy at Monday night's Ordinary Meeting.

The Strategy's endorsement means Council can now implement a future-ready plan for Horsham municipality with the vision to be “a youth-friendly rural city, with engaged and empowered young people who have access to the services and opportunities they need for a healthy, safe and happy life”.

The development of this Strategy follows extensive consultation with young people, schools, community organisations local youth agencies and the general community.

Director Community Services Kevin O'Brien said the Strategy had been out for public consultation throughout July and a number of submissions were received.

"A total of 43 submissions and comments were received and we thank those people for their valuable feedback," Mr O'Brien said.

"We also had 325 people, including 200 young people, who participated in the first consultation period back in April."

The Strategy will see a transition away from the centre-based model delivered through Nexus to an internal youth officer who will be well placed to deliver on emerging priorities and coordinate engagement with young people.

"This is a significant change and we acknowledge the important work of Grampians Community Health and its Nexus program over the past 10 years," Mr O'Brien said.

"The new direction will allow HRCC to respond to the diverse and changing needs of all of its young people now and into the future."

The Strategy also recommends that a form of youth council be developed to enhance engagement between young people and Council.

"This is in response to feedback that young people need more opportunities to engage with Council on a range of topics. We are not prescribing what the new engagement looks like as we want young people to tell us what model will work best for them," Mr O'Brien said.

"This new model also proposes that Council Officers will be required to report on the implementation of the Youth Strategy to a group of young people who will then report on achievements and/or blockages to Council."

Download final Horsham Youth Strategy

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