Ausyouth Conference 2001

Ausyouth Conference 2001:
Our Future Now - Empowering young people through youth development

Speach given by Susan Halliday,
Sex Discrimination Commissioner for the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity
Commission, 23 March 2001

There is no doubt
in my mind that the concept underpinning the creation of Ausyouth is sophisticated
and strategically focused.

The creation of Ausyouth
is an initiative that clearly picks up on the real-life needs of today's
youth, an initiative that has the potential to foster the building blocks
of a progressive caring society, and from a human rights perspective,
it's an initiative that addresses some of Australia's obligations with
respect to international instruments, to which we as a nation are committed.

For example - Article
10 of the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights
states - special measures of protection and assistance should be taken
on behalf of all children and young persons without any discrimination
for reasons of parentage or other conditions.

And Article 3 on
the convention on the rights of the child notes states parties undertake
to ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for his or
her well being.

I've been asked
to progress a discussion about equity and access in the area of youth
development, and as I'm sure many of you are aware equity and access play
a major role in my everyday work as a Commissioner with the nation's Human
Rights Commission.

We have the research;
we have the personal experiences; we all know youth development programs
can make an enormous difference to young people. And the sharing of experience
and expertise facilitated by Ausyouth can only prove to be advantageous
in the long term for young people, youth program managers and developers,
as well as the community at large.

This conference has
confirmed the importance of a shared vision about youth development, whilst
simultaneously highlighting the importance of valuing program difference.
And while I acknowledge the diversity of program in the youth development
field can be a significant issue to grapple with - for me as an independent
human rights commissioner, acknowledging the diversity of individual youth
who participate in, or don't participate in (for whatever reason ) available
programs, is of even greater significance.

As an organization
Ausyouth has enormous potential and indeed progress to date from all reports
has been most encouraging.

To achieve its full
potential over the long term however, it is essential that Ausyouth, like
all new evolving organizations, faces unknown, and at times difficult
terrain. Hard questions need to be asked: A number of challenges that
stem from underlying biases that to this day are fostered by the broader
community, have to be addressed and new ground and opportunities have
to be explored. This is all positive.

The over arching
theme required if we are to move forward and make progress in the area
of youth development, is to ensure that whatever is done addresses the
legitimate "realities" that face today's youth.

The "realities" we
faced over past years have to be put to one side despite the fact that
they remain relevant to us, and have contributed greatly to our own wisdom
and development. The point being that they belong to us - a different
generation (or two). And granted while we know there may be some similarities,
even overlap, with the "realities" of past generations, it is not for
us to determine what is relevant for today's youth.

The most important
role for us is to facilitate the process whereby youth can determine their
own significant issues of relevance.

What's relevant to
today's youth, is what today's youth deem relevant! While this is a hard
lesson for some adults to learn - we are most effective when we do not
impose our own views. Imposing our views on those participating will simply
prompt participants to disengage.

It will also result
in potential participants removing themselves from the pool of future
recruits. When working with youth, which I have continued to do in my
roles as Sex Discrimination and Disability Discrimination Commissioner/s
young people have made it very clear that they are particularly aware
and concerned about access and equity issues.

While they may articulate
if differently access and equity is relevant to today's youth. So the
questions we need to pose as facilitators of youth development programs
are -

• How do we make
  youth development a truly cross community, cross-cultural, cross gender
  inclusive experience?
• How do we ensure
  equity (ie. Equal outcomes)?
• How do we best
  manage fair access?
• How do we ensure
  youth development programs for young people with a range of disabilities?
• How do we tackle
  racial stereotypes and negative attitudes that make participation for
  some young people less comfortable than for others?
• How do we focus
  parents on the importance of youth development, particularly parents
  with no experience or understanding of the benefits?
• How do we break
  down the stereotypical beliefs held by young people themselves, and
  manage the 'it's not cool' image issues?
• And how do we
  combat the element in the media who work on the premise of not letting
  the facts (i.e. the positive things) get in the way of a good story
  (i.e. the sensationalist, simplistic horror headline).

Before I go on, based
on my last point, I'd like to explore the issue of language, and how its
used to the detriment of our youth, in both the media and society at large.

Language has an
incredible impact both consciously and subconsciously - yet language so
often identifies children and young people as problems to be endured,
rather than our future to be nurtured.

Language to this
day fosters the stereotypes so many of us have fought so hard to remove.

Lets use gender
as an example - if you visit your local sandpit it will become clear in
a short space of time that if you want to harass, humiliate, intimidate
or belittle a small boy you simply call him a girl; you ask him is he
wearing a dress, you call him gay, or accuse him of playing like a "chic"
- yes the strategy is to align him to the "lesser gender".

Now if you want
to harass, humiliate, intimidate or belittle a small girl, children in
the sandpit know that if you're a girl there is no "lesser gender" so
you align your female victim with an animal; usually a dog, pig or a cow
and more often than not utilising adjectives such as dumb, stupid, ugly
or fat.

A second example
- a high profile independent school recently introduced a Parents' Sporting
Policy which addressed, among other things, the fact that from the school's
perspective it was not acceptable at school sporting events to utilise
derogatory language, including language that belittled on the basis of
gender. "Move it - you're playing like a girl" was listed as a specific
example.

The language used
in the media more often than not invokes pessimism and despair. It creates
and feeds harmful stereotypes and at times creates the necessary mindset
to create even a victim mentality.

How often have we
read over recent months - "boys bad at literacy" - this is a simplistic,
inaccurate yet all encompassing gender stereotypes. Actually some boys
are really good at literacy, and there are others who need specialist
help - and most importantly there are a diverse range of reasons that
underpin both scenarios. I have taken the time to speak with boys about
this type of labelling or categorisation. Many found it 'unfair', others
were confused 'is every boy worse than every girl', and some asked why
aren't we treated as individuals? Indeed some were disturbed that it became
a boys versus girls thing.

To follow in an equally
inaccurate offensive naive manner were the public cries that boys were
bad at literacy because of gender equity programs (in my experience that
would be code for "blame the girls" - be they the boys peers or their
female teachers).

The real issues for
the limited performance of some boys, and in reality some girls, (once we remove the sexist, emotive, sensationalist language),
are quite complex. Imposed gender roles and stereotypes, and denying boys
a diverse range of opportunities and experiences due to out-dated thinking
and redundant cultural norms is a good place to start, if we are interested
in unpacking the real issues.

Simplistic, pessimistic
use of language must be addressed if we are to make a difference; I'm
pleased to note Ausyouth's focus on using positive language to achieve
attitudinal change.

One key objective
of Ausyouth is to conduct research into the current profiles and the status
of youth development programs. This is important because currently there
is a lack of demographic data to evidence inclusivity.

I spend a lot of
time in my job challenging people to reflect on their personal biases,
which they sometimes unwittingly impose on others.

I constantly push
people to move beyond their personal comfort zones, and their own experiences,
even if they chose not to personally experience the lifestyles and pathways
others have chosen or are forced to endure.

While this doesn't
always make me a popular person - I didn't take this job to be popular
- I took it to help secure the rights of the most vulnerable and progress
issues like access and equity for those least likely to be able to do
it for themselves.

Let me give you
an example of how I do my job whilst simultaneously making myself unpopular!
Recently when discussing a vocational education and training program I
was told with great enthusiasm that the intake had increased by 50% each
year, for the past few years - and it was an area identified by industry
as an area of skill shortage.

For me statistics
such as these do not automatically indicate progress, cloning possibly
- but not progress. The questions I'd ask to make an assessment of progress
would include -

• What was the
  gender breakdown in year 1 and did it improve in the next year and the
  next? (from the way I see things I'd be pushed to agree there had been
  progress if there was no difference)
• How many indigenous
  students are involved?
• And students
  with disabilities?
• And students from
  different socio-economic backgrounds?
• What proactive
  initiatives are now in hand to collect the data, so as to build the
  intake so that it reflects the diversity in the community amidst the
  relevant age group?

For me progress would
be demonstrated by a 15% up take that allowed for a better reflection
of the make-up of our diverse society, if young people who have experienced
new things and benefited from them can take the information back to encourage
others to participate.

Put simply there
are 3 stages to note if one wishes to genuinely deal with access and equity

Stage 1 is
all about collecting the necessary statistics. From this perspective I'm
particularly pleased to see Ausyouth has a clear objective to conduct
research into the profile of youth development.

Stage 2 is
about understanding why certain groups of young people aren't involved
(and often they'll be vulnerable youth who could benefit greatly from
such programs). Is it about inability to access the opportunities as well
as self-selection out of the process.

Stage 3 is
about sophisticated affirmative action strategies to engage non-participants.

I used the word
vulnerable to describe youth - and clearly some young people are more
vulnerable than others.

Our work at the
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission through national inquiries
and complaint mechanisms brings us into contact with many vulnerable youth.

We deal with young
people who experience restricted education, employment, social and economic
advancement. Others who suffer social alienation and victimisation due
to personal characteristics or circumstance. A number who attempt to manage
the on-going effects of physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Far too many
who due to disability, mental illness and substance misuse have to grapple
with differential treatment. Others who remove themselves from the daily
operation of society to avoid harassment on the basis of gender, teenage
pregnancy, racial background, religious belief and sexual preference.

We need to ask ourselves
how many of these young people are involved in youth development programs
presently - I'm sure its probably more than five years ago - the goal
of course is to continue to increase the number.

Vulnerability is
about susceptibility; it has subjective and objective components.

Subjective = fragility,
insecurity, limited ability to adapt, diminished self-esteem, impediments
to social interaction.

Objective = (or external
factors) - systemic discrimination; distance, isolation, financial status
and cultural and social categorisation by more powerful forces.

Using gender as an
example - how do we get young women into areas and programs traditionally
focused or dominated by young men?

We do it in groups,
having already developed an internal support structure for them, because
they'll need it. Of course that's the step you take after you've discovered
the real reason why they're not involved. Have you ever had someone use
the analogy about co-education - "it's a co-ed school" versus "it's a
boys school that now has an intake of girls" - think about it and apply
it to your program.

Establish a mentor
system on the outside of the program (using female mentors), as well as
a buddy system on the inside (using male buddies). And make sure you have
established a support system for the male buddies, because they'll need
it, always be prepared for a backlash!

Run 360-degree feedback
sessions.

Exit interviews with
"appropriate people" for all participants, whether they complete the program
or not.

Parent and sibling
feedback sessions can be helpful.

Arrange a cross program
exercise where the young women can interact / share issues and "survival"
strategies. This also allows for networking and an opportunity to bounce
issues off others, who are removed from an immediate situation of concern.

Have the young women
involved in your program, actively recruiting your next set of participants.
Let them draw up the criteria that they feel got them through. Give them
the opportunity to talk up the benefits and influence others.

In drawing to a
close I'd like to take this opportunity to focus on two groups of young
people who are clearly in need of support. Young people who could benefit
greatly from equitable youth development.

Recently when the
Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission undertook Bush Talks. Deep
concern was expressed about the lack of opportunities for young people
in rural communities. The issues raised dovetailed into to the areas of
access and equity. For example the Commission was told - the rationalisation
of services, lack of employment, no after hours transport, no safe amusement
places, young people being seen as a social threat when they gathered
in public places, restricted lifestyle and boredom, were all issues of
concern.

The second group
of young people I'd like to draw your attention to is the group who for
a variety of reasons, contemplate suicide. Alarming youth suicide figures
mask the increasing trends in unsuccessful suicide attempts. The following
data is taken from the Commission's Bush Talks publication.

• In 1986 there
  were 24 suicides per 100,000 males aged 15-24 in rural areas. By 1995
  the figure had risen to 35.
• The indigenous
  youth suicide rate is 1.4 times the non-indigenous rate.
• At least 30%
  of young people who attempt suicide are lesbian, gay or bisexual. Several
  studies have linked the high level of male youth suicide in rural communities
  with high levels of intolerance of gay people in rural communities.
• Depression is
  now one of the most common mental health problems young people experience.
  It is a major risk factor for youth suicide. Between one half and three
  quarters of all suicides are linked to depression.

How many of these
vulnerable young people in need of support and development are benefiting
from your programs? Involvement, without judgement may well allow for
a future, by saving a life.

In conclusion -
Youth development in the 21st century has to be about respect for the
individual. It must incorporate legitimate acknowledgment of diversity
of experience and background, as well as sound means by which to develop
unique potential. Youth development programs need to have appropriate
mechanisms in place that can support, in a non-threatening way, those
young people susceptible to the subjective and objective components of
vulnerability. No young person is immune, all are deserving!

We will progress
when all involved understand that equity is about equal outcomes and that
the processes and delivery mechanisms needed to achieve equal outcomes
are not about equal or identical treatment. A new level of sensitivity
needs to be injected into the management of youth development programs.
Respect for the individual whilst simultaneously embracing and valuing
difference will allow us to move forward.

I challenge you
to consider the alternative.