The council is to decide what special provision for youth it should make out of rate-payers’ money.
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Deputy Mayor Carol Sparks will bring the matter up at the council meeting on Thursday under a proposal that just under $80,000 be set aside for “youth services”.
It should, she proposes, be used “to employ an experienced youth worker for a minimum of 30 hours per week and to allocate funds for youth programs and to seek additional grant funding for further youth initiatives.”
She and fellow councillor, Dianne Newman, have proposed previously that the old shire council headquarters on Bourke Street be turned into a “youth hub” once the RFS has vacated it in the near future.
But they are likely to be opposed by Mayor Steve Toms.
The council will have in front of it a report by its Director of Corporate and Community Services, Anna Watt.
In it, she says that funding a youth worker for 30 hours a week would mean other services being less funded.
“If the entire budget is used to employ a Youth Worker who is specifically qualified to deal with mental health issues and domestic violence for 30 hours per week”, she says, “these activities will not be able to be funded:
- a special youth project;
- providing regular youth activities;
- providing regular afternoon teas;
- a ‘portable’ youth hub;
- breakfast at the high school on days not currently provided for;
- resume (for job applications) writing courses;
- interviewing technique workshops;
- additional locations where free WiFi is available;
- monthly movie nights;
- other activities that may be suggested by the Youth after more liaison.”
What “youth” wants is not clear, if indeed it wants anything special. It is not clear, either, that “youth” has one single view.
The council has surveyed “youth” but the results are not conclusive because only 151 people aged from 15 to 24 responded, and this below the proportion of total young people to make the answers statistically significant.
The sample was also not a cross-section of the population in that 15 per cent of respondents were Aboriginal people, a higher proportion than in the population (six per cent, according to the council).
All the same, the respondents indicated that a lack of jobs and courses worried them.
Here are the results as outlined by the council:
“In response to a question asking about young people’s concerns the answers were:
- a lack of courses and/or jobs (34%);
- a lack of youth activities (27%);
- a lack of services including mental health (23%);
- the lack of a safe place to go (16%).
“When asked what youth needed in Glen Innes, the responses were:
- more youth activities (37%);
- Wi-Fi (28%);
- a safe place to go (25%);
- more services - e.g. ‘mental health’ (10%).
“When asked if they attended youth events the response were:
- sometimes attended (54%);
- attended (16%);
- did not attend (30%).”
The council said that when the youth were asked if they would consider attending an afternoon tea and activity coordinated by Council’s Youth Worker every Wednesday, some participants misunderstood the question and thought that it referred to attending Ordinary Council Meetings.
After adjusting for this confusion, the responses were:
- 38% replied sometimes;
- 36% replied yes;
- 19% were unsure;
- 7% replied no.