The Victorian based Future Proof: young people and disasters, (re)building communities project was funded in 2022 through the Federal Government, Black Summer Bushfire Grants. It brought together fourteen partner organisations to actively engage young people affected by the 2019-20 bushfires to improve their resilience, and to build their skills and qualifications. One of the largest grants awarded in the grant round at $9.933 million, Future Proof continues to find ways for young people to be actively involved in their communities around disasters.
In addition to building skills and qualifications, embedding young people in local councils, locally focused youth organisations, and LLENs (Local Learning and Employment Network) has promoted youth participation in local communities, enabling young people to create relationships with local emergency management organisations, and other disaster focused organisations. In this way, the project has shifted organisational and agency perspectives of young people; where previously young people were tokenised, they are now highly regarded and respected members of their organisations, sought after for their thinking and expertise. The benefit for all has been the sharing of knowledge and creative, innovative approaches that bring young people into community risk reduction at the local level.
In this presentation we address the big question of ‘how can we introduce innovative approaches to community risk reduction?’ We focus on three key learnings:
1. Share the findings from Future Proof: young people and disasters (re)building communities
2. How innovative and creative young people can be within local organisations when given opportunities and respected.
3. Embedding young people into organisations takes time and requires a commitment to creative the best possible environment. When done well, the benefits to the broader community are evident.