About

Yerp is a toolkit. It’s a package of information to support one big idea – that young people have an important role in shaping the present and future of Victoria..

Welcome to Yerp!

If you’re 12-25, Yerp will give you ideas for stepping up and making change in your community.

If you’re older, Yerp will show you why it makes sense to involve young people in what you do – and how you can go about it.

And if it’s your job to work with young people, you’ll find Yerp particularly useful.

Yerp is proudly brought to you by the Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic).

Using Yerp

Yerp is divided into 10 topics. Each topic contains a number of articles. You can read them all or just choose what’s relevant to you. Topics and articles are generally in two sections:

  • ‘For young people’ is aimed at 12-25 year olds who want to get involved in organisations and their communities, or create change with their own projects and campaigns.
  • ‘Involving young people’ section is for anyone older (or younger) who wants help to involve young people in what they’re doing.
Background

Yerp was developed in 2013. We used YACVic’s 2004 youth participation handbooks, Taking Young People Seriously, as a starting point and spoke with over 200 younger and older people around Victoria about youth participation and engagement. The project was guided by a Steering Committee of young people and youth sector representatives.

Thanks to:

Everyone who contributed their ideas and stories to Yerp:

Banyule 100 members; Clunes Youth Group; Frankston QSA Under the Rainbow group; Hume Central Secondary College Junior SRC and VCAL students; Kapowww! Dandenong members; Koorie Youth Council State Council members; Maroondah City Council; Northern Grampians Youth Action Council; Oxygen Project; OzChild Pakenham VCAL students; Bendigo, Broadford, Corio, Mornington, RMIT University, Sunshine, Stawell, and Wonthaggi workshop participants; YACVic members workshops participants; youth-led organisations workshop participants; SKYS St Kilda Festival Organising Committee members; South Gippsland ‘What if?’ project members; Spectrum Ethnic Youth Council; VicSRC Student Executive; YACVic’s Youth Reference Group; Yarra Youth Ambassadors;and everyone who completed our online survey.

The people and organisations who supported our consultations, case studies and project feedback:

Aaron Garth and Buffy Leadbeater, Mitchell Shire Council; Adam Cooper and Heather Cummings, Maroondah City Council; Amona Hassab and Essan Dileri, Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre (MRC);

Amy Rhodes, Northern Grampians Shire Council; Carol Smith at Frankston Mornington Peninsula Local Learning and Employment Network; Cherry Grimwade, Cr Amanda Stone and Cr Phillip Vlahogiannis, City of Yarra; Coral Hogan, St Luke’s Bendigo; Ed Bergemann and Emma Crichton,St Kilda Youth Service (SKYS); Georgie Ferrari, YACVic; Ismail Taylor-Kamara, Joanne Cree and Andrew ? at OzChild Community VCAL; Jarrod Marrinon, YDAS Steering Committee; Kate Walsh, VicSRC; Kylie Emonson, City of Greater Bendigo; Lauren Kerr, Jane McKellar and Damir Lendich, Brimbank City Council; Lisa Breen, Alex Robinson and David Shields, Hume Central Secondary College; Mic Emslie, RMIT Youth Work; Naomi Simmonds, Banyule City Council; Penelope Scanlan, Moreland City Council;

Rebecca Morecroft and Lothar Wahl, Office for Youth; Sally Moonie, Department of Human Services; Seb Stewart, Lisa Dinale and Carolyn Flanagan, Peninsula Pride; Simone Lewis, Surf Coast Shire; Stephanie Raike and Sacha Neuage, City of Greater Dandenong; Sophie Dixon, South Gippsland Shire; Tricia Folvig, Frankston Mornington Peninsula Primary Care Youth Partnership; Wendy Major, South Gippsland Bass Coast LLEN.

Many thanks to Scott May and everyone at the Office of the Victorian Privacy Commissioner for providing oversighton privacy issues. And many thanks to Laura McRae, Michael Watts, Quyen Le, andTiffany Barton at Ashurst Australia for their pro-bono legal work regarding young people on boards and committees.

Credits

Leo Fieldgrass managed the Yerp project and developed the website content.

Linda Randall wrote the original Youth Engagement Resources proposal and oversaw the Yerp project.

Jen Rose coordinated the Taking Young People Seriously handbooks, upon which Yerp is based.

The Yerp Steering Committee was Anthony Osborne; Ben Cavender, Bass Coast Shire Council; Emily Mellon, City of Yarra; Greg Kennedy, Koorie Youth Council; Jane Barclay, Hepburn Shire Council; Jo Prosser, Frankston Mornington Peninsula Local Learning and Employment Network (LLEN); Lucy Benbow, Victorian Government Office for Youth; Roger Holdsworth, Youth Research Centre, Melbourne University; Jessie Mitchell, YACVic; Marianna Codognotto, Artful Dodger Studios, Jesuit Social Services; Rachel Humphrys; Shofi Triyanto.

Catalina Sinclair created the Yerp branding and illustrations.

Liquorice designed and built the website.

This project was funded by the Victorian Government.

We respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and pay respect to their elders, past and present.

Comments, questions or dead links? Contact us at [email protected].

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