Organised by Yarra Ranges Council this 2.5 hour meeting was focused on Meaningful Youth Engagement.
The meeting began with representatives from the providers of Youth Services in Melbourne’s Outer East introducing themselves and the services they provide. There was then small group discussions of a time that young people have had a meaningful input into our organisations and the barriers to engagement that we face.
A morning tea was provided and the break offered a great opportunity to connect with the attendees from other organisations. There was then a presentation from the CREATE Foundation on their Youth Partnership Practice Principles which were designed in partnership with young people. Finally, there was a panel of local young people who have been involved in youth engagement programs and a discussion of how they have either been done well or poorly.
I attended this meeting to learn more about the services currently being provided for young people in the local area as well as to see if there are ways the library could support or supplement these services or connect with organisations to improve the libraries youth services. I also hoped to learn more about positive and meaningful ways to connect with young people and ways library services could improve their reach with young people.
This meeting provided me with an opportunity to connect with providers of local gaming groups for young people and to plan to meet their groups. To bring some games from the library and ensure they know that they could borrow video games and board games from the library as well as attend events such as International Games Day. Sadly, this has been delayed due to Covid-19 however, I hope to visit these groups in the future.
It was wonderful to hear directly from some of the young people in our communities and thanks to this discussion panel we plan to connect with groups at local schools to discuss the sorts of ways libraries could support students and young people and discover more about the types of services they want.