Helping youth to have a say

Young people from multicultural, migrant and refugee backgrounds have extraordinary potential. But all too often, they face barriers along their way.

Our Youth Collective initiative brings young people together with multicultural service providers to create a platform for youth from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to participate in activities that help shape service delivery planning, implementation and outcomes that impact them across education, employment and a number of other areas. 

Our aim is to improve service delivery outcomes for multicultural young people in NSW through innovative and collaborative initiatives. By participating in this initiative, young people have the opportunity to build their confidence, resilience and leadership skills.

The program includes the NSW Settlement Partnership (NSP) Youth Workers Network, a group of youth workers from across 20 settlement service providers in the NSP, which is a consortium led by SSI to deliver services to newly arrived migrants and refugees. Network members collaborate on projects, share resources and learn from each other how to successfully deliver services and support to young people. For example, we collaborated with the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service, Primary Health Networks and Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) to co-design resources for the Multicultural Community Wellbeing campaign.

Youth representation and leadership are other key aspects of this initiative. Through activities such as our 20 Voices Youth Symposiums, we bring together newly arrived young people to discuss issues in youth settlement, such as education, housing, employment and health.

Subash Poudel is a social worker and advocate in the multicultural, youth and disability sectors. As an international student and migrant, he is passionate about creating a safe space for people from diverse backgrounds to feel at home in Australia and is active in his local community.

We are committed to empowering young people to play a role in the development of policies that impact them, so we create spaces for young people to share their challenges, hopes, dreams and lived experience. 

The Youth Speaks project amplifies the voices of migrant and refugee youth through conversations with young people in the community. If you are a teacher, youth worker or university student who is interested in learning more about the project, we would love to hear from you!