Index
Landscapes for young people project
Landscapes for Young People (L4YP) is a three year project which began in late 2009 with funding from the Victorian Government’s Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD) Strengthening Victorian Community Fund. The Shires of Glenelg and Southern Grampians, as well as the Glenelg Southern Grampians Local Learning Employment Network (GSGLLEN) and RMIT, have jointly contributed to further resource the initiative. L4YP is investigating the issues and experiences of young people across the Southwest of Victoria, as well as exploring the community environment - such as the agencies and services - which nurtures and supports them.
The Southern Grampians (SGYN) and Glenelg Youth (GLYN) Networks were the project’s proponents. The concept for the L4YP project emerged from these networks, whose members are among key stakeholders. They saw there was a need to identify cohesive information which could assist future planning and contribute evidence to the local youth sector. They understood that often they made assumptions about young people without hearing their voices and that evidence needed to be gathered about the issues faced by young people and whether their needs were being met by current provisions. In addition, there was a concern about the lack of opportunities for the broader civic engagement and participation of young people.
The project has a number of components including a research element; a focus on engaging young people and training them in research methods; and a project activity and communication element which involves the wider youth sector including networks, agencies and professionals.
For the purposes of the project ‘young people’ have been defined as being those aged 12 and 20 years. This cohort was chosen to capture the age at which issues are occurring, and on a practical level, represents the mandated age groups that many local agencies work with.
The key L4YP project objectives which have been established to frame the project activities and research themes are to:
- build capacity in young people and the youth sector to engage with community, agencies and organisations
- implement a ‘whole of community’ approach to identify the issues of concern to young people
- identify barriers to, and opportunities for, improved service delivery
- collect and analyse relevant data
- collaborate with young people and community and professional agencies
- identify recommendations for future actions
- promote the L4YP findings and recommendations
Launch of the snapshots report
The L4YP team publicly launched the Snapshots Report on 16 December 2010 in Heywood. This report is a compendium of data and L4YP project findings that is intended to be a desk top reference tool for agencies and local government.
This ‘live’ document will capture more information and data as the L4YP project continues and aims to be a reflection of the lived experience of young people in Glenelg and Southern Grampians. As well as capturing facts and figures it will create an opportunity for a youth voice to be heard by policy and decision makers. The next version will be updated and released in 2013 with an electronic version available on this page.
L4YP project finds a national audience
The L4YP team presented at the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) annual conference in September 2011. The title of this paper was Exploring place: Young people, their research and rurality and drew on the work done in partnership with young researchers in the context of the overall L4YP Project.
Further information
For more information about the L4YP Project:
Dr Sean MacDermott – Research Fellow
Tel: (03) 5572 0537
Email: sean.macdermott@rmit.edu.au