With only a couple of months until the end of the year, the team at CREATE are showing no signs of slowing down when it comes to advocating for children and young people in care! We’ve had another month full of behind the scenes advocacy work, as well as some great media coverage and speaking events. Let’s take a look at CREATE’s advocacy wrap up for November.
In the media
- We had a great piece featured in the Daily Telegraph this past week, with an incredible CREATE Young Consultant Matthew sharing his experience. The really hit home regarding the lack of extended care in NSW – and drew a stark contrast between NSW and the other states who provide care for young people beyond 18. Take a look here.
- A few months ago, we also had a brilliant news story come from South Australia in the Weekender. This story, which you can read here, has just received an award in the Adelaide Press Club. It’s great to see not only the story and the journalist recognised, but importantly, the stories of young people engaged with on such a high level.
Speaking Events and Presentations
It’s been a busy month with regards to speaking events and opportunities. We had the privilege of speaking at the Life Without Barriers Carers conference, where our CEO Jacqui Reed and 4 incredible Young Consultants Adina, Emily, Darcy and Ellie, spoke about their experiences with CREATE and their advocacy passions. It was an inspiring presentation, with the young people really bringing the issues to life with their lived experience priding invaluable depth and detail to findings of CREATE’s research.
We have also had opportunities to speak to teams with the Red Cross and Baptist Care, with our Executive Director of Research sharing the findings of the post care report, and providing insight into how these insights can be implemented in practice.
Another very important event that is upcoming is the SNAICC Conference. We are delighted to be speaking at the Conference, sharing our findings around the four key areas in which First Nations young people have poorer outcomes when leaving care than non-Aboriginal young people. Keep an eye out for further updates!
Young People's voices driving change
This month we’ve been working on a range of submissions and consultations, with one submission being finalised during the month. This submission, called “Submission to the Legal Affairs and Safety Committee: Working with Children (Indigenous Communities) Amendment Bill”, relates to the introduction of a restricted blue card in Queensland. This submission was challenging, as it involves balancing our support for Aboriginal communities to have greater autonomy in decision-making, while also wanting to ensure child safety. Our position, broadly, is that the Bill in its current form could not be supported, but that we want to continue to see First Nations communities actively involved in self-determination and decision making when it comes to employment. To read the full submission head here.
The other submission we are working on is in relation to the Raise the Age campaign. This important campaign is all about raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14. To us, this feels like an obvious step forward and one which we whole heartedly support. There are many states discussing this issue at the moment so stay tuned for further updates as this continues to unfold and our submission is finalised in the coming weeks.
We are also involved in supporting the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study in NSW which is a long-running research project on the lives of young people in care. We will provide more information in due course about the outcomes and insights provided from this study.
clubCREATE Magazines
Our magazines are due out again in early December! These editions are jam-packed with advocacy articles including information on Care Day 2022, our Conference and the Raise the Age campaign. Sign up to our newsletter below and keep and eye out for those magazines in your inbox.
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