CREATE is delighted to introduce the members of our brand-new Youth Advisory Board, the ‘National Experience to Action Board (Youth)’ or NEABY.
Formerly known as Influencing Committee, NEABY is made up of young representatives from every State and Territory who will meet on a regular basis over the next 12-months to share their insights and ideas for improving the care system for children and young people around Australia.
Each of our members have a really clear vision for the role they are hoping to play in NEABY. Find out more about the members below.
Meet Tayla our Member for the ACT
Tayla is an incredibly passionate advocate who uses her voice to improve outcomes for young people with a care experience, young people who face disadvantage or disconnection from family, education, and those most vulnerable in our community. She uses her personal experiences to help drive social change, build more inclusive and fairer communities for all young people who live in the ACT.
Tayla received the Young Canberra Citizen of the Year award in 2023 for the significant contributions she made to her community through volunteer roles with CREATE Foundation including through Speak Up, Youth Advisory Groups and the CREATE Your Future program, Youth Care Packages Committee, and the ACT Youth Advisory Council.
Tayla would like to use her role on NEABY to drive transformative change, specifically around the language used to describe children and young people in out-of-home care.
Language used to describe and talk about children and young people in OOHC is stigmatising and disempowering. The way system practitioners are communicating to and about children and young people needs to change to break down stigma and begin a complete system culture and mindset change. Children and young people are incredibly stigmatised and reflected as statistics and through poor choices of language consequently limiting support and opportunity as well as impacting the way they are listened to and understood.
Meet Tommy our Member for NSW
Tommy is passionate about ensuring young people have the opportunity to fulfil their dreams. Being a member of the National Experience to Action Board (Youth), Tommy is empowered to drive change within his community.
Tommy feels strongly about using his lived experience to educate people who are supporting children and young people growing up in care that all actions (including lack of actions) can have lasting consequences on young people’s lives.
As the NSW representative on NEABY, Tommy’s main priority when communicating with others is to be open to listening, looking at things from other people’s perspectives and being respectful of people’s time.
A couple questions I ask myself before speaking with others would be: what are their motivations for speaking with me; what is the message I want to convey; and how do I convey my message in an efficient manner that doesn't introduce an excessive amount of bias? By keeping these questions in mind, I am able to speak with groups on a regular basis and ensure that the message I wish to convey is passed along effectively. I also ensure that it's structured in a manner which is easily digestible and doesn't stray away from the main point I wish to convey.
Meet Jayden our Member for QLD
Jayden is a CREATE Young Consultant from Meanjin/Brisbane who has been involved with CREATE for 6 years. Jayden is a passionate advocate for reforming the care system so that children and young people in Queensland feel safe.
Jayden is also an artist who enjoys crocheting and drawing.
I want to ensure that EVERY child and young person is able to feel safe in their houses. I can’t wait to work with all our wonderful Young Consultants throughout the country.
Meet Harper our Member for VIC
Harper is a 17-year-old CREATE Young Consultant who has been involved with CREATE and Victoria’s Ministerial Advisory Group for several years.
Harper is thrilled to join NEABY as the representative from Victoria and looks forward to getting to know other members as the Board collectively works towards creating a better care system for other children and young people.
I am passionate about making meaningful change in the care system and ensuring rights of children in care are upheld… Sibling connections has personally influenced my family significantly, and is particularly important to me as a result.
Meet Cheyenne our Member for WA
Cheyenne is a 23-year-old Young Consultant from WA.
Cheyenne is eager to use her voice and share her ideas for how to best support children and young people with experience of the care system, across the country.
Cheyenne describes her greatest passion as improving the care system. She is excited to see what NEABY can achieve over the next 12 months.
Sharing my experiences to better the out-of-home care sector is a huge passion of mine. Being a part of NEABY will allow me to push my passion further. I also feel I will have great insight as someone who has lived in all forms of care in WA, and as someone who is also now working within the sector to be able to share both experiences and help to identify and advocate for the necessary changes needed to the sector.
Meet Keely our Member for NT
Keely is the NEABY member for the Northern Territory.
After her experience in foster care at the beginning of high school, Keely developed a passion for equity and social justice which has led her to study a social work degree.
Keely is looking forward to being a part of NEABY and sees this opportunity as one for connection, growth and change.
I would like to create positive change for kids with a background in care. I am currently undergoing a social work degree and therefore I bring a unique perspective to this role. I am very passionate and have an ability to critically reflect and engage in respectful discussion. I think I’m a very proactive person and understand the role of emotions in discussions such as this.
Meet Sarah our Member for SA
Sarah is a 22-year-old CREATE Young Consultant who has an adorable pet bunny named Pearl.
Sarah is thrilled to represent South Australia on NEABY and is passionate about changing several things about the care system, including:
- Ensuring care leavers are supported in their transition to adulthood with access to essential documents like birth certificates and information about services they can use after leaving care, such as food pantry’s.
- Sibling connection through facilitating sibling catch ups or contact with younger siblings who are still in the care system.
It's important to me to be able to speak up and advocate for those who are still in care and feel like they aren't being heard. I am also looking forward to expressing my thoughts in a group-setting, especially as I feel everyone's thoughts and feelings deserve to be heard.
Meet Ann our Member for TAS
Ann is the TAS representative on NEABY.
She is 22-years-old with a passion for helping others reach their full potential. Ann’s passion has led her to study psychology where she will move onto her Bachelor’s in Psychology.
Ann’s interests include cooking, going on drives with friends and Lego. A fun fact about Ann is that she has had every hair colour you could think of.
I am eager to be a member of CREATE’s NEABY as I have a passion for people and want to be able to voice some issues and resolutions to improve areas within the care system.
Update after the first NEABY meeting
At NEABY’s inaugural meeting, members discussed their experiences of transitioning from care, exploring some of the systemic barriers that meant they didn’t get access to support and at times did not know what support was available.
This is what they said:
There is decent amount of support out there, the thing is, it’s inconsistent and not everyone receives it…
Transition support plans should be documented from age 15. If your case manager doesn’t do it, it doesn't happen.
Makes it really hard when all care systems are inconsistent. If they were all the same, they could all work together.
Case managers, they go home but we are home. It’s not a job, it’s a privilege.
In regional and remote areas there are 3-10 caseworkers covering an entire region.
If you don’t get along with your caseworker, you don’t get anything done for you. If you are a hard kid, they just placate you.
[There should be] greater supervision, pathways that if they are neglecting responsibilities towards young people there are greater repercussions for that.
[Lack of support is] not effecting their lives in the long run, it’s us who miss out on opportunities.
NEABY members shared some really robust ideas and solutions while reflecting on their experiences of transitioning from care in each State and Territory. CREATE is now in the process of updating our advocacy messaging on transition supports to capture member feedback.
Our members also collaborated to come up with the name, ‘National Experience to Action Board (Youth)’ or NEABY for short. And they consulted on design elements, colours and symbols to present their work moving forward. Watch this space as CREATE develops the NEABY brand to share their work over the next 12 months with the world.
