WHEN THE youth of Bellingen in tandem with local community and business organised a festival from scratch late last year it was lauded far and wide.
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‘Here Comes the Sun’, an all-day celebration of music and skating, was the end result of a Youth Directions pilot program, THE BIG IDEA.
The program was designed to encourage, engage and offer the youth of Bellingen a chance to learn skills that could set them up as budding entrepreneurs, and given the resultant success, schools, parents and industry mentors assumed the program would be an annual fixture.
However, this is not to be the case.
Youth Directions was a Federal Government initiative and funding has all but ceased under the restructuring of social welfare services. Support for youth programs nationwide means a 97 per cent reduction of monies allocated, in other words, a drop of $105 million to $3 million per annum.
This means Youth Directions will cease to run by December this year and with them, projects like THE BIG IDEA.
Liz Wilkins is the executive officer of the region’s Youth Directions and her assessment of the situation was nothing short of dire.
“These funding cuts are a devastating blow to the youth of the shire,” Liz said.
“Kids who are disengaged and disadvantaged benefitted from our services and with this announcement, it will mean they are at high-risk of falling out of society.
“The Government is punishing the youth, not empowering them.”
Youth Directions, established in 1997, was initially designed to coordinate industry specific work placements. However, over the years it emerged as an organisation that builds and coordinates relationships with business, community and education providers to improve youth career and educational attainment.
Liz describes Youth Directions as being, “the WD40 in the community…a driver of the development of kids”.
Cath Cosgrove, a partnership broker for Youth Directions, was closely involved with last year’s THE BIG IDEA and was not only invested on a professional level, but had a personal connection – her son, Flynn, was a member of Here Comes the Sun festival team.
She said that as a parent she, “loved the rich opportunity that THE BIG IDEA gave young people to be brave, to take their seed of an idea and turn it into a genuinely youth-led and run event”.
Cath reiterated that events like these encourage innovative thoughts and provide a good learning curve for life.
“By putting on the Here Comes the Sun music and skate event the students had to come to grips with a huge range of real–life business tasks and responsibilities,” Cath said.
“It was such a great opportunity to build confidence and a ‘can do’ attitude - a real opportunity for students to think out of the box.”
Liz is apprehensive about the future for the region’s youth.
“It’s never been great, but it’s going to get a lot worse,” Liz said.
“The services we provide don’t cost a lot, but it’s essential to joining all the dots that bring youth together with industries that can help them get education or offer jobs.
“The Federal Government is making assumptions about the people that don’t hold true. There’s an expectation that all members of society are capable – but they’re not. “Kids need assistance, they need help, they need opportunities. Some have drug and alcohol issues, have mental health issues, are homeless … they need services that support them.”
Youth Directions now hopes the NSW Government my help may plug the funding shortfall.