The ‘ACT Child and Youth Mental Health Sector Alliance, Youth Reference Group’ (YRG) is an entirely youth created, youth lead, Lived Experience Youth Reference Group; comprised of up to 15 active members aged 16 – 25. It is facilitated by the Office for Mental Health and Wellbeing, co-ordinated and created by a Youth Lived Experience staff member.
The YRG provides an accessible, flexible, and collaborative platform for young people in the ACT to elevate their voices and engage with initiatives that directly affect their communities. This is achieved through the key functions of consultation, building relationships, and independent projects.
The YRG is dedicated to removing barriers to participation and creating accessible and safe processes for youth engagement – meeting young people where they are at. All decisions made within the group are made collaboratively, including the initial creation of the group – a decision that came out of an informational session intended to share ACT youth advocacy opportunities. The pool of young people attending the session unanimously agreed that they would rather be engaged in these opportunities as a formal reference group, and with the support of the Alliance this became reality.
The YRG members together designed and established all their own governance structures. This includes developing the terms of reference, identifying values and group culture, meeting delivery and frequency, and developing the three key functions and activities.
In their structures they made a commitment to supporting the personal and professional development for members – leading to the implementation of the rotating co-chair and co-secretariat roles. They also formed a working group, where members can meet outside of monthly meetings to progress independent projects.
The YRG drives meaningful positive change for young people in the ACT by advocating for the need and value of co-design, contributing to upcoming Youth Mental Health projects (including new services), decision making and identifying priorities in the ACT, creating educational resources, community engagement and more. The group aims to work collaboratively with other advocacy groups across the ACT, with the goal of building relationships to foster a strong community network – opening more opportunities for young people, and allowing their voice to be heard in projects they may have not seen otherwise. They are passionate about bringing more diverse youth voices into projects, and providing opportunities through advocacy.
