1

Chairperson’s Report 4

Chief Executive Officer's Report 6

Who’s Who at YACVic: Secretariat & Staff 9

Organisational Structure 10

Our Vision & Guiding Principles 11

Board of Governance 12

Year in Brief 16

Policy & Projects 20

Youth Participation & Sector Development 24

Young Media Spokesperson 29

YACVic Statewide Conference:

Here, Now & Next 30

Youth Reference Group 32

Media & Communications 34

Youth Disability Advocacy Service 35

Victorian Indigenous Youth Advisory Council 38

Victorian Student Representative Council 41

Youth Referral & Independent Person Program 44

Youth Homelessness Policy Officer (CHP) 46

Membership 48

Financial Report 52

Thank you 58

Where We've Been 2009–10 59

Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Annual Report 2010

CONTENTS

above: YDAS LiveAccess Launch Northcote Social Club 2009

below: VIYAC Meeting Warrnambool 2010

The Youth Affairs Council of Victoria, Inc.gratefully acknowledges the funding support funding support of the Office for Youth within the Department of Planning and

Community Development.

Level 2, 172 Flinders Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

(03) 9267 3799 | fax (03) 9639 1622 | info@yacvic.org.au

Of note this year has been the completion of YACVic’s new strategic plan which has been the result of a detailed consultative and participa-tory process. Involving the complete spectrum of YACVic’s diverse stakeholder group has been crucial to the formation of a strong strategic plan. I am delighted to report that this plan accommodates for our organisational growth through being dynamic and flexible, while keep-ing us focused on our core values of opportunity, justice, participation and equity.

Earlier this year YACVic hosted a state-wide conference in Ballarat entitled: “Here, Now and Next ” Our first carbon-neutral conference, this event canvassed issues facing young people and the youth sector at present and provided a forum to discuss the future of the sector. It was my pleasure to chair this conference and feed-back received at and after the event told that it was both enjoyable and informative for those who attended.

I was particularly delighted to see so many young people attending and getting involved, as well as making some really terrific presenta-tions. YACVic should be proud of its successful endeavours to involve young people at every

At 50 years of age, YACVic still gets around with the spry step of the young people it represents. While this has been a year of significant change for YACVic, we’ve met the challenges head-on and have a lot to be proud of for the year.

Report from the Chairperson

LUCAS RYAN

level of its organisation. That members of this organisation are willing to appoint young peo-ple to the position of chair indicates that YACVic not only holds the belief that young people have a meaningful and valuable contribution to make to their communities, but acts on it. I thank the members of YACVic’s Board for placing their trust in me as Chairperson this year.

This year we welcomed to the Board Lauren Fernando, Bridie Hudson, Khan Churchill and Victoria McLure as Young Media Spokesperson. Our new members have reinforced that part of YACVic’s continued growth and success must be attributed to our capacity to attract and engage talented volunteers and staff. I congratulate our new Board members on their valued contribu-tions to the organisation. My thanks also to our Treasurer, Toni Jenkins, Emma Crichton, Richard Hill, Tim Corney and Cassandra Devine whose continued service to the Board should also be noted.

As Chair, I have undertaken to strengthen relationships between the Board of Governance and YACVic’s advisory mechanisms, the Youth Reference Group and the Policy Advisory Group. Members of the Board sit on both these groups and this year we have endeavoured to report to and receive reports from the PAG and the YRG. This has allowed the Board a more detailed in-sight into the operation of these groups and we were delighted to hear of the achievements of both throughout the year.

A special note of thanks is owed to Richard Hill who, in his role as Deputy Chairperson, has provided YACVic and me personally with the benefit of his wisdom and experience. Richard has been a patient and insightful mentor to me

and his support during my time as chair has been invaluable. It was my pleasure to move that Richard become a life member of YACVic and I congratulate him on this tremendous achieve-ment. His knowledge of governance as well as his methodical and considered approach to partici-pation on our board is of great value and worth to our organisation.

Finally, my thanks on behalf of the Board to our CEO, Georgie Ferrari, whose leadership has played a key role in propelling YACVic into suc-cess. Georgie is a capable leader of our organisa-tion, a passionate advocate for young people and the youth sector and a wonderful colleague. It has been my pleasure to work alongside Georgie Ferrari as Chair and I thank her for her service to the Board and to YACVic.

It has been my pleasure to chair YACVic’s Board of Governance for its golden jubilee year and I look forward to another 50 years of the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria.

YACVic Board of Governance Chairperson

Lucas Ryan

Report from the C.E.O.

GEORGIE FERRARI

After eight annual reports for the same or-ganisation it’s hard to think of something clever and original to open with. Perhaps a simple haiku can sum the work of YACVic up in the last 12 months up nicely:

Another year passed A lot of work done for youth Much more still to do

On a more serious note, I’m very pleased to report on the last 12 months work of the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria. It’s been another busy and productive year for the team.

The financial year kicked off with YACVic busy in conference preparation mode. In October the sector and young people gathered in Ballarat for two days of concerted thinking, discussing, debating and learning. Over three hundred peo-ple attended and feedback on the event was ex-tremely positive.

Putting on a conference of this scale is a time consuming effort. My thanks go to the entire YACVic team for their effort in making it a suc-cess. Particular thanks must go to Liz Leahy for her conference organising skills and attention to every little detail; and to Kate Goodrich for or-ganising and coordinating the conference youth team so well.

Once the conference was completed we were able to focus on the many other pressing tasks needing our attention. The Strategic Plan was put out to consultation. I thank all of the YACVic members who contributed to this document through providing feedback and suggestions for improvement. YACVic’s communication of-ficer Joe Collier has worked up a great design

5

and layout for the plan. It is due for release any day now and will be a document that guides our work for the next five years.

YACVic has continued to support the estab-lishment of the national youth peak body, the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition (AYAC). This year we assisted in appointing AYAC’s new direc-tor, Andrew Cummings to the role of leading the organisation. I sit on the Board of AYAC and am treasurer for the organisation. Jen Rose repre-sents YACVic on AYAC’s Policy Council.

Our work in advocating for rural and region-al youth and youth sector issues continues. In June of this year we heard that we were success-ful in our bid to get an additional worker placed at YACVic who would have the role of focusing on this important aspect of YACVic’s advocacy work. The role will also have a capacity building

element to it, assisting rural youth sector work-ers to access training and development opportu-nities. Many thanks to Jen Rose for all her hard work in advocating for this role.

YACVic also continues to be involved in the ter-tiary deferment study. This work seeks to under-stand the specific and unique disadvantage rural students face when it comes to gaining a tertiary qualification. Late last year we published a report on a two-year study that looked at the destina-tion points of rural students who had originally deferred their tertiary offers. The Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development was very supportive of this work and, earlier this year, negotiated with us to fund the project for a further three years. We are delighted that this important study, a partnership with the LLENs and Melbourne University, will continue.

Sticks and Stones and Mobile Phones: Bullying in the

New Millenium Youth Forum

August 2009

YACVic’s projects consistently produce quality products and excellent results. George Taleporos continues to lead the Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS) team from strength to strength. We are lucky to have dedicated staff in Martin Healy and Bec Feldman as part of the YDAS team. In National Youth Week this year YDAS had the premiere of its short films at ACMI. These films, all made with the creative input of young people with disabilities, aim to break down the stereotypes of disability and show a more diverse range of representations of young people with disabilities. They are all extremely creative and powerful pieces. If you haven’t seen them, DVDs are for sale through YACVic.

VicSRC started the year with a new coordi-nator. Kate Walsh joined the team after James Tonson left to travel and explore other oppor-tunities. Kate had to hit the ground running, with lots of projects on the go. With a little ad-ditional funding from the Department of Educa-tion and Early Childhood Development VicSRC has produced a resource that is a guide for prin-cipals entitled "Developing Student Participation, Engagement & Leadership" This great resource is available on their website.

The Victorian Indigenous Youth Advisory Council (VIYAC) has also had a successful and productive year. In February we welcomed Clar-isse Slater to the role of project officer with VIYAC. Clarisse and Tim Kanoa (VIYAC State coordinator) have been incredibly busy running events, holding consultations and advocating for Aboriginal young people. The Police Community Spirit Awards, held earlier this year were a great success. We were delighted that Commissioner Simon Overland presented the awards.

Looking back over the last 12 months I realise it’s been an incredibly busy one for the organisa-tion. There’s not enough room in this report to highlight all of the things we have done. I en-courage you to flick through to get more of a pic-ture of the work of the whole organisation.

I continue to be enormously proud of the work we do and the people I work with, both the paid staff and the volunteers. YACVic is a fantastic, hardworking and successful organisation be-cause of the people we work with. Our mem-bers continue to be a strong base from which we can advocate, giving us ideas, providing us with problems to be worked out and issues to be raised. The Board are a bunch of such dedicated and talented people, it’s a privilege to be guided by them. Lucas Ryan, in his first year as Chair, has executed the role with professionalism, wit and wisdom. My thanks go to the PAG, the YRG and all of you who help make YACVic tick.

YACVic celebrates 50 years of operation as an independent organisation this year. We should pause for a moment to think about the fifty years of hard work and dedication that has built this organisation. I am reminded of the African proverb “If we stand tall, it's because we stand tall on the shoulders of those who came before us”. Never more true than in this instance.

Chief Executive Officer

Georgie Ferrari

ABOUT YACVicYACVic is governed by a volunteer board and managed by a paid secretariat. We are a not-for-profit, member-driven organisation with our core funding coming from the Department of Planning and Community Development through the Office for Youth.

Finance Officer

SALLY WEST

Chief Executive Officer

GEORGIE FERRARI

Coordinator

KATE WALSH

Communications Officer

JOE COLLIER

Youth Participation & Sector Development

Manager

KATE GOODRICH

State Coordinator

TIM KANOA

Projects Officer

CLARISSE SLATER

Manager

DR. GEORGE TALEPOROS

Individual Advocate

MARTIN HEALEY

Projects Officer

REBECCA FELDMAN

Office & Events Coordinator

LIZ LEAHY

Manager: Policy & Projects

JEN ROSE

YACVic Secretariat

YDAS VIYAC ViCSRC

In addition, YACVic auspices and supports vari-ous projects, including the Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS), the Victorian Student Representative Council (VicSRC), the Victorian

Indigenous Youth Advisory Council (VIYAC), the Youth Referral and Independent Person Program (YRIPP), as well as the role of the Youth Policy Officer at the Council to Homeless Persons.

govern

nominate

nominate

elect

manages

advise

advise

Members

Staff

appoint

appoint

Youth Reference Group

6-15 positions

6-15 positions

Policy Advisory Group

Up to 10 positionsincluding 5 young people

Board of Governance Chief

Executive Officer

YACVic has around 360 members comprising both individuals and organisations.

These include organisations that work with young people (e.g. local council youth services), schools, community organisations, government agencies, academics and young people themselves.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

OUR VISIONOur vision is for a Victorian community in which all young people are valued as active participants, have their rights recognised and are treated fairly and with respect.

YACVic will work to achieve this vision by:• Listening to and working with young people, the workers and organisations who support them

• Identifying issues that affect young people

• Advocating on issues that affect young people

• Supporting and resourcing the sector that works with young people

• Supporting young people’s participation and self-advocacy.

• Maintaining an independent and robust relationship with government

In doing this, YACVic will maintain a focus on those in our community who are most disadvantaged and marginalised.

GUIDING PRINCIPLESHuman RightsHuman rights are the universal rights that every human being is entitled to enjoy and have protected YACVic will work to protect the human rights of young people

ParticipationParticipation is the active involvement of young people in all aspects of decision making YACVic will work within a youth participation framework

CollaborationCollaboration is the process of a number of people or organisations collectively working together in a way that achieves a greater result than as a single unit

IntegrityIntegrity guides the way YACVic staff and volun-teers conduct themselves We are committed to hon-esty and ethical behaviour at all times

Inclusion Recognising the diversity of young people and the sector that supports them, YACVic strives to consid-er the needs and views of all young people and those who work with them

EmpowermentYACVic assists young people in gaining the skills they need to advocate for themselves YACVic works from a strengths-based approach, both with young people and the sector that supports them

LeadershipAs the peak body and leading youth policy advocate in Victoria, YACVic has a leadership role in the work we do with young people and the sector

Lucas Ryan (Chairperson)Lucas is an undergraduate student at the Uni-versity of Melbourne, studying a Bachelor of Arts majoring in political science and crimi-nology. Having joined YACVic in 2006, Lucas has served three terms on the Youth Reference Group and has played an active role in organis-ing their projects over the years. In 2008 Lucas was elected to be YACVic’s Young Media Spokes-person and became the Chairperson in 2009.

Lucas was appointed as the National Youth Week 2008 Young Member for Victoria and the 2009 Young Member for Australia. In these roles Lucas has represented the interests of young Aus-tralians to the Victorian and Commonwealth Gov-ernments. He is also one of the Victorian Equal Opportunities and Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Youth Ambassadors. Lucas is pas-sionate about issues around youth participation and promoting young people’s involvement in the policy decisions that affect them.

Richard Hill (Deputy Chairperson)Richard has worked as a youth worker, youth service manager, trainer and researcher in vari-ous guises for the last 40 years. He has worked mainly in local government (including a stint in East London), spent three years teaching on the youth work course at the former Phillip Insti-tute (now part of RMIT), and has recently com-pleted a variety of consultancy projects in the youth sector.

Richard now works freelance as a facilitator, lecturer and supporting quality improvement. While this work spans a variety of sectors, it is still primarily in youth work and community development.

He has been involved with YACVic at various stages of its history and was president of the Vic-torian Youth Workers Association in the late 70s. He still has a strong interest in youth affairs and is delighted to be part of YACVic’s current resur-gence and strong focus on youth participation.

Toni Jenkins (Treasurer and Regional/Rural Representative)Toni is the Executive Officer of the South West Local Learning and Employment Network. Al-though she was born and bred in regional Victo-ria, as a young person her one aim in life was to leave the country for the ‘bright lights’ of the city. She therefore lived and worked in Melbourne for many years as well as working for a time over-seas. She has worked in all sectors of the work force: private, government and community.

A converted returnee she is now passionate about living and working in rural Victoria. The YACVic role, in many ways is an extension of that passion. As the regional Victoria rep Toni believes that she can bring to the table an im-portant perspective that will add value to and strengthen YACVic’s Board of Governance.

YACVic BOARD OF GOVERNANCE

Victoria McLure (Young Media Spokesperson)Victoria is a 20 year old young person from the Cen-tral Goldfields in regional Victoria. Currently in her final year of a Bachelor of Youth Studies at Victoria University, Victoria hopes to break into the public policy field at the end of this year, with particular interest in policy affecting regional young people.

Victoria has been involved with YACVic for the past 3 years as a Youth Reference Group member where she developed a great interest in organisational policy and strategic planning. In the role of Young Media Spokesperson, Victoria hopes to create a stronger point for communica-tion between the Board of Goverance and Youth Reference Group, in order to broaden YACVic’s capacity for youth participation in organisation-al decision making and strategic planning.

Khan ChurchillKhan is a youth worker who has been working in the sector since 2002. In this time he has worked predominately in the areas of employ-ment, education and training support with at-risk and homeless young people. Working in the Northern and Western suburbs of Melbourne he is passionate about supporting young people, with a particular focus on those from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Khan is also a strong advocate for the ongoing professionalisation of youth work as a profession and currently sits on the development commit-tee for the Youth Workers’ Association.

Tim CorneyTim is a qualified youth worker and has worked in the youth and community sector for over twenty years as a youth worker, manager of youth serv-ices and as a consultant to community agencies, government and peak bodies. He has taught and published widely in the area of youth affairs.

He is currently a member of the Youth Work-ers Professional Association reference group and a member of the board of the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria. He recently co-authored the first draft of the Victorian youth sector's Code of Ethical Practice for the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria.

Emma CrichtonEmma is the CEO of St Kilda Youth Service (SKYS), a proud and passionate organisation that works with young people who are disadvan-taged and who experience complex needs. SKYS works with young people in the city of Port Phil-lip and young people who visit the municipality to attend the innovative community education programs that SKYS offer.

Emma is a tireless networker; she works in this manner in order to achieve systemic change. Emma works with local residents, government, philanthropy, young people and the corporate sec-tor to get the greatest possible outcomes for young people. Emma has been involved in the youth and community sector for over ten years. Emma is serving her second term on the YACVIC Board.

Cassandra DevineCassandra is a Public Policy/Media and Com-munications graduate, and is currently pursuing her Masters degree in Social Policy. She has been an active member of the Youth Reference Group since 2004. She was a regional editor of the Of-fice for Youth’s youthcentral website and has also conducted media skills training in Timor-Leste. Cassandra is a recipient of the Duke of Edin-burgh Gold Award and Rotary Youth Leadership Award. She also has a longstanding interest in health and wellbeing, sitting on the Community Advisory Board for Body Image and teaching yoga in her spare time.

Lauren FernandoLauren is a Bachelor of Arts–Youth Studies stu-dent at Victoria University, where she is also the Equity Officer at the Victoria University Stu-dent Union. She looks after student advocacy for a range of collectives. She has also previously served on the Victoria University Council.

Lauren has been a representative to World Youth Day, Cologne, and was inspired to create a youth group at her parish. From 2006, she has coordi-nated a youth group at St. Joseph’s, Springvale, and in 2008 took a group of young people to World Youth Day, Sydney. Lauren was recently elected National Ethno Cultural Officer for the National Union of Students. She is passionate about youth participation and social inclusion.

Bridie HudsonBridie, 24, is currently completing her Honours Degree in Psychology at The University of Mel-bourne. Bridie has been involved in youth advo-cacy since 2006, mostly through the Youth Dis-ability Advocacy Service (YDAS). As part of her work with YDAS, she has been an active Steering Committee member, Management Group member and chairperson of the Sector Reference Group. She has also contributed to various systemic youth disability advocacy projects and represent-ed YDAS at various public speaking events.

Bridie has also worked within the youth sec-tor in a paid capacity, as a Project Officer for Youthlaw and Women’s Health In the North. As a newly appointed board member, Bridie hopes to bring the voice of a young woman with a dis-ability to the board. She hopes to facilitate a link between YACVic and YDAS that will strengthen the governance of both organisations.

Board Meeting Attendance 09/10

YACVic Board of Governance members

(from left to right)

Victoria McLure, Lauren Fernando, Emma Crichton,

Richard Hill, Cassandra Devine,

Toni Jenkins, Bridie Hudson, Lucas Ryan &

Tim Corney

(absent) Khan Churchill, Mike Poutney, Kimberley Flanagan, Thom Woodroofe

ELIGIBLE TO ATTEND SINCE JULY 2009 ATTENDED

Toni Jenkins 10 9

Richard Hill 10 8

Victoria McLure Elected November 2009 6 5

Bridie Hudson Co-opted to the Board in August 2009 8 8

Khan Churchill Elected November 2009 6 5

Cassandra Devine 10 7

Tim Corney 10 7

Emma Crichton 10 5

Lauren Fernando Co-opted to the Board in August 2009 8 7

Lucas Ryan 10 9

Mike Pountney Completed 2 year term in November 2009 4 3

Kimberley Flanagan Completed 2 year term in November 2009 4 2

Thom Woodroofe Stepped down in August 2009 2 2

3 x leave of absence

14

YEAR IN BRIEFForums and Conferences• Here, Now & Next:

YACVic’s Statewide Conference

• Sticks and Stones and Mobile Phones: Bullying in the new Millennium.

• RuralYouthServicesforuminBallarat (in Partnership with Victorian Rural Youth Services)

• Mapping the Middle Ground: Supporting the educational engagement of young people aged 10–14 years (in partnership with the Inner City Regional Youth Affairs Network and with the support of the Office for Youth and the City and Inner Eastern Local Learning and Employment Networks)

• Diversifying the Mainstream (in partnership with the Youth Participation Practice Network)

• Kitted Out: tools, tips & technology for improving youth participation (in partnership with the Youth Participation Practice Network)

Reports/Policy Papers• Sticks and Stones and Mobile phones:

Bullying in the new Millennium: Outcomes of a forum on bullying and young people in Victoria

• Significant program reform announced by DEEWR in the area of Youth Attainment and Transitions

• The Victorian Budget 2010-11: What’s in it for young people?

Submissions• ScrutinyofActsandRegulationsCommitteereview

of Exceptions and Exemption to the Equal Opportunity Act 1995

• DrugsandCrimePreventionCommitteeInquiryinto Strategies to Reduce Crimes against the Person (in partnership with the Centre for Multicultural Youth).

• ScrutinyofActsandRegulationsCommitteeinrela- tion to the Summary Offences and Control of Weapons Acts Amendment Bill

It’s been a busy year at YACVic. Here is a brief summary of what we have been up to.

VIYAC Meeting May 2010

Submissions (cont.)• StandingCommitteeonFamily,Community,Housing

and Youth Inquiry into the Impact of Violence on Young Australians.

• ElectoralReformSecretariatwithintheDepartment of Premier and Cabinet in response to the Electoral Reform Green Paper: Strengthening Australia’s Democracy

• Treasuryonprioritiesforinvestmentforthe2010–11 State Budget.

• VictorianLawCommissionsReviewofChildProtec- tive Arrangements (in partnership with the Victorian Council of Social Service).

• DepartmentofEducationandEarlyChildhood Development’s discussion paper ‘Towards a Health and Wellbeing Framework for 0-18 year olds’

• RuralandRegionalParliamentaryCommitteeInquiry into the extent and nature of disadvantage and ineq- uity in rural and regional Victoria (in partnership with Victorian Rural Youth Services).

• Facilitatedthebringingtogetherofadiversegroupof young people to provide direct advice to the Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth, through the hearings process for the Inquiry into the Impact of Violence on Young Australians.

• FederalParliamentaryinquiryintoCyberSafety. A transcript of our evidence can be found at www.aph.gov.au/hansard/joint/commttee/J13186.pdf

• YACVicprovidedadvicethroughthereference group to the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s review of surveillance in public places.

• YACVicprovidedpolicyadvicetotheDepartment of Education and Early Childhood Development on the ‘Pathways to re-engagement through flexible learning options’ directions paper and the ‘Stronger futures for all young Victorians Discussion paper on the youth transitions system’

Other publications• Marginalised youth, surveillance and public space,

early findings research report, published on the Victorian Privacy Commissioner’s Office website.

Key partnership projects• VictorianRuralYouthServicesNetwork

• YouthReferralandIndependentPersonsProject

• DeferringaTertiaryOfferinVictoriaLongitudinalStudy

• SmartJusticeCampaignpartner(campaignledbythe Federation of Community Legal Centres)

• ChildRightsTaskforce(inpartnershipwithYouthlaw, VCOSS, Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare)

• SchoolofPoliticalandSocialInquiry,MonashUniversity (Surveillance Report)

• ProfessionalAssociationofYouthWorkers

• CoalitionforSameSexAttractedYouthSupportFunding

• StepBackThink

• SwinburneUniversity,FinancialLiteracytraining

Participation Training and workshops• AboriginalAffairsVictoriaYouthLeadershipforum.

• BodyImageGrantPrograminduction(withtheOffice for Youth).

• Youthparticipation/consultationstrategiestraining events in Kerang, Benella and Penhurt and Traralgon (in partnership with the Office for Youth).

• Workshops/talkstopromoteyouthparticipation practice at Swinburne University, Monash Youth and Family Services, North Melbourne Institute of Technology, RMIT, Kangan Batman Tafe, Victoria University, Holmesglen Tafe and Australian Catholic University, Chisholm TAFE, Whittlesea Youth Refer- ence Group, Good Sheppard Youth and Family Services.

Participation Training and workshops (cont.)• ProvidedadviceandupdatestoFrankstonCouncil,

Moonee Valley Youth Services Network, headspace, WIRE, Schoolies Week Interagency Steering Commit tee, Fitzroy Legal Services and the Victorian Youth Mentoring Association.

• Twoconsultationswithyoungpeopleaboutthekey consumer issues for them (with the Australian Con- sumer and Competition Commission).

YACVic representation on committees and working groups• AustralianCentreforHumanRightsEducationPAC.

• AustralianCompetitionandConsumerCommission and Consumer Affairs Victoria—Young people and Consumer issues.

• AustralianDrugFoundation,6thDrugsandYoung People Conference Program Committee.

• AustralianYouthAffairsCoalitionBoardandPolicy Advisory Group.

• ChildRightsTaskforce.

• ChildSafetyCommissioner’sReferenceGroupon young people and public transport.

• C.O.S.T.ResearchTrainingSchool2010onCyberBullying

• DepartmentofHealth—Children,YouthandFamily Partnership Group

• HumanRightsLeadershipForum

• InnerCityRegionalYouthAffairsNetwork

• InternationalYouthMentalHealthConference— Scientific Committee

• LocalLearningandEmploymentNetworksExecutive Officer’s meetings

• LordMayorsTrustFundadvisoryroundtable

• MinisterialAdvisoryCommitteeontheYouth Peer Panel Project

• Ministerialroundtableonalcoholandyoungpeople

• OfficeoftheCommunitySectorRegulatoryReform Reference Group, State-wide Workforce forum and Grant Service Group Reference Group

• OfficeforWomen’sPolicy—StatePlantoprevent Violence Against Women

• RegionalYouthAffairsNetworkConvenorsmeetings

• RMITYouthWorkPAC

Mapping the Middle Ground forum

Supporting the educational engagement of young people aged 10–14 years

May 2010

17

• SameSexAttractedFundingCoalition

• StandingCommitteeonFamily,Community,Housing and Youth—young people’s experiences of violence

• StateandTerritoryYouthPeaks

• SWISC—SchooliesWeekInteragencySteering Committee

• VicSRCCommitteeofManagement

• VictimsofCrimeYouthStrategyAdvisoryGroup

• VictorianCouncilofSocialServiceBoardofGovern- ance and Finance and Risk Committee

• VictorianCouncilofSocialServiceTransportand Disadvantage Reference Group

• VictorianIndigenousYouthAdvisoryCouncil Reference Group

• VolunteeringandParticipationPortalReferenceGroup

• WIRE

• YouthParticipationWorkersnetwork

Youth Reference Group Induction Camp

March 2010

• VictimsSupportAgencyYoungVictimsStrategy Reference Group, Department of Justice.

• YouthReferenceGrouprepresentationonthe Ministerial Youth Advisory Committee.

Other events and conferences attended• ConventionontheRightsoftheChildCelebration

Morning Tea (in partnership with the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, the Victorian Council of Social Service, Youthlaw and Reach Out for Kids).

• DepartmentofTransportthroughparticipation in the Transport, Social Inclusion and Well-being conference in December.

• YACVicYouthReferenceGroupmembersattended the C.O.S.T. International Training Seminar on Cyber Bullying in Melbourne.

• Watch this space: Children, young people and privacy conference.

Policy Update

JEN ROSEManager,

Policy & Projects

YACVic’s policy work for the 09-10 finan-cial year has been broadly focussed around three areas: the regulation of public space and the extension of police search and sei-zure powers; education and student wellbe-ing; increased advocacy and support for ru-ral young people and youth services. Below is a run-down of YACVic’s policy advocacy on these issues.

The regulation of public space and extension of police search and seizure powers:An election year typically sees a focus on law and order policy and campaigning from both of the major parties on issues of public safety. This year, however, has seen a particularly strong fo-cus on ‘youth violence’, particularly knife crime and assault, sparking parliamentary inquiries at both the State and Federal levels, and the Gov-ernment’s introduction of new, broad reaching search and seizure powers for police.

YACVic developed submission responses to both the Victorian Parliament’s Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee Inquiry into Strategies to Reduce Crimes against the Person (in partnership with the Centre for Multicultural Youth) and the Federal Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Youth Inquiry into the Impact of Vio-lence on Young Australians YACVic also worked with the Federal Committee, to ensure that young people’s voices were heard as evidence to the inquiry, bringing together a diverse group of young people to participate in the hearings proc-ess in February 2010.

In November 2009, YACVic raised serious concerns to the Scrutiny of Acts and Regula-tions Committee (SARC) regarding the Summary

Offences and Control of Weapons Acts Amendment Bill 2009 The Bill introduced new search powers for police enabling them to search any person in a designated area, without warrant, including children. The Bill also granted ‘move on’ powers to police, enabling police to give a person a di-rection to leave a place on grounds such as ‘the person is likely to breach the peace’. YACVic’s submission to SARC highlighted the ways in which the Bill would breach rights protected by the Charter of Human Rights and Responsi-bilities; the evidence of ‘move on’ powers being utilised in discriminatory ways in other jurisdic-tions and the clear way in which they breach the Rights of the Child.

June 2010 saw the introduction of yet fur-ther amendments to the Act, seeking to further broaden the search capacity of police and ena-bling a police officer to perform the duty of an Independent Person when searches are being conducted on children. YACVic will be continu-ing their advocacy in this area.

YACVic have also been active members of the Smart Justice Coalition led by the Federation of Community Legal Centres, promoting understand-ing of criminal justice policies that are effective, evidence-based and human rights compliant.

YACVic has also been exploring marginalised young people’s experiences of Surveillance in the CBD. After having sat on the reference commit-tee for the Victorian Law Reform Commissions Inquiry into Surveillance in early 2009, YACVic partnered with Monash University to explore in more detail the experiences of surveillance of young people who are marginalised or home-less. The research has involved conducting focus groups with young people from Frontyard Youth

Services and St Kilda Youth Services, and pre-liminary results were presented to the ‘Watch this Space: Children, Young People and Privacy’ Conference hosted by the Office of the Victorian Privacy Commissioner in May. The full research report will be available later in 2010.

Education and student wellbeing: This year has seen a flurry of policy reform ac-tivity from within the Department of Educa-tion and Early Childhood Development. YACVic submitted a response to the Departments dis-cussion paper ‘Towards a Health and Wellbeing Framework for 0–18 year olds’ YACVic also pro-vided the department with advice in relation to the discussion papers ‘Pathways to re-engagement through flexible learning options’ and ‘Stronger futures for all young Victorians: Discussion paper on the youth transitions system’

YACVic identified this time of reform as an opportunity to promote understanding and dia-logue between the education and youth sectors, to facilitate increased collaboration in support-ing young people’s wellbeing. YACVic partnered with the Inner City Regional Youth Affairs Net-work to host a policy forum ‘Mapping the Middle Ground: Supporting the educational engagement of young people aged 10–14 ’ The forum was working towards the development of a common, cross-sectoral understanding of how to best support the educational engagement and wellbeing of young people aged 10-14 through an integrated, holistic approach that engaged both schools and youth services. It brought together representa-tives from Government, schools, family and youth services and research, to examine the cur-rent policy and practice landscape relevant to

supporting the education engagement and well-being of this ‘middle years’ age group and to con-sider what might need to happen to strengthen supports.

Rural young people YACVic continued to work in close collaboration with Victorian Rural Youth Services (VRYS), to advocate for the needs of rural young people and rural youth sector development. YACVic and VRYS collaborated on a submission to the Rural and Regional Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into the Extent and Nature of Inequity in Rural and Regional Victoria, in which we highlighted the in-equities commonly experienced by rural young people in relation to health and wellbeing out-comes, access to support services, higher educa-tion, transport and other opportunities.

YACVic and the VRYS were very pleased to see a strong focus on young people in the Blueprint for Regional and Rural Victoria Ready for Tomor-row, released in June. The Blueprint contained a number of strategies aimed at supporting rural young people’s access to tertiary education, im-proving access to transport to link to education and jobs and supporting them to have a voice and participate in local civic life. The Blueprint includes a Youth Action Strategy through which YACVic has received funding enabling the re-cruitment of a ‘Rural Youth Services Support and Advocacy Officer’ to work with Victorian ru-ral Youth Services to provide a policy, advocacy and sector support focus on rural young people and youth services.

In the 2009-10 year, YACVic also produced policy responses to the: •ElectoralReformSecretariatwithintheDe-

partment of Premier and Cabinet in response to the Electoral Reform Green Paper—Strength ening Australia’s Democracy •Treasury, highlighting priorities for invest-

ment for the 2010–11 State Budget. •VictorianLawReformCommissionreviewof

Child Protective Arrangements (in partner ship with VCOSS).

Thank youYACVic’s policy work would not be possible with-out the generous input and assistance of a range of member organisations, other advocates and young people themselves. For their assistance and collaboration this last financial year, YACVic would like to give particular acknowledgement and thanks to: •MembersoftheVictorianRuralYouthServices

Steering Committee •TheCentreforMulticulturalYouth •Dean Wilson and Emma Colvin from the

School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University •YouthLawandtheFederationforCommunity

Legal Centres •FrontyardYouthServices •StKildaYouthServices •TheVictorianCouncilofSocialService •The InnerCityRegional YouthAffairsNet-

work and the Convenor, Chrissy Singh.

21

YACVic’s Policy Advisory Group:The Policy Advisory Group (PAG) provides poli-cy advice to YACVic’s staff and Board of Govern-ance to guide the development of YACVic’s policy work. The PAG is made up of YACVic members, who meet regularly to share their particular ex-pertise on issues relating to young people and youth services in Victoria with YACVic’s manag-er of Policy and Projects. In the 2009-10 finan-cial year, the PAG provided advice to YACVic in the following key areas:

•IdentifyingprioritypolicyissuesforYACVic’swork;

•Studentwellbeingandsupportingyoung people’seducationalengagement;

•Prioritiesforadvocacyintheleaduptothe StateandFederalElections;

•ThereviewofYACVic’sPolicyStatements.

PAG members for the 2009–10 year include:•TiffanyOverall,Youthlaw•ChrissySingh,Stonnington Youth Services•LaurenOliver,Berry Street •RobynFreestone,Youth Substance Abuse Service•DeborahLawson,Centre for Multicultural Youth•GeorgeTaleporos,YDAS•BridieHudson,YACVic Board•CassandraDevine,YACVic Board•DeiliaMurray,City of Casey•JaneLazarri,Council to Homeless Persons•KatherineEllis,YACVic member•RichardFoster,Financial and Consumer Rights Council•TraceyCarson, Hobson Bay City Council•VuLongTran,YACVic Youth Reference Group

(Hugh Stevens and Bianca De Bortoli have also represented the Youth Reference Group)

YACVic would like to extend a sincere that you to all members of the PAG for the 2009–10 year.

Your engagement, advice and expertise help ensure YACVic’s policyworkisreflectiveoftheconcerns and perspectives of the sector.

Youth Participaton & Sector Development

KATE GOODRICH

As always the year has been both busy and varied, meaning that YACVic has been active-ly engaged in working across a wide number of areas and projects, in order to strengthen youth participation & sector development both within YACVic and across Victoria.

YACVic has continued to convene the Youth Par-ticipation Practice Network (YPPN). The YPPN describes itself as a “community of practice” with the intention of coming together to discuss and support each other’s work in youth participation. The Network has met on a bi-monthly basis. At each meeting we bring practice questions and dilemmas to examine, dissect and improve cur-rent practice. These dilemmas have been writ-ten up and are available on the YACVic website and are of use to anyone facing similar issues in their own work. The Network has also designed and run two forums over the year with over a hundred participants attending. The forums responded to identified needs from the sector. The first forum, ‘Diversifying the Mainstream’ looked at ways and means to make youth refer-ence groups and advisory bodies more broadly representative. The second forum ‘Kitted out’ had two components, the first was a ‘participa-tion 101’ session followed by workshops that looked at how to successfully use current tech-nology to enhance youth participation work.

YACVic also continued working in partner-ship with OFY, working as part of their training program on the Positive Body Image grants in Melbourne and Shepparton. YACVic also worked with OFY to deliver a series of regional training events, working with a wide range of youth serv-ice providers, looking at best practice in proc-esses of youth consultation and participation. These were held in Gippsland, Kerang, Benalla and Penshurst.

YACVic also worked with the Victorian Rural youth Services, to advocate for the needs of ru-ral young people and rural youth sector devel-opment. For further details please see the Rural Young People section of the Policy Report on page 22.

This work is primarily carried out by our CEO, Manager of Policy and Projects and the Manager of Participation and Development. This has led us to taking an active role in a diverse range of

Participants from the YPPN's "Kitted Out" forum

topics which affect young people. We have also worked hard to get young people invited to these groups, more of which is outlined in the Youth Participation section.

YACVic also provided resources, presented and delivered workshops to many student, youth and service/staff groups, including: ‘Reach Out’ Youth, Monash Youth and Family Services, Frankston Council, Moonee Valley Youth Serv-ices Network, Yarra Ranges Youth Services Net-work, Headspace, WIRE, youth work students at NMIT, RMIT, Kangan Batman Tafe, Holmesglen Tafe and the Australian Catholic University.

Youth ParticipationThe 2008-9 Youth Reference Group (YRG)saw out their year with a flurry of activity and were integral to the smooth running of the ‘youth volunteer team’ at the YACViC confer-ence in October 09. The YRG and individual

members, also ran a number of workshops for the youth specific stream at the confer-ence. The YRG were joined by other young vol-unteers from Ballarat for the three days and a huge thanks goes out to everyone who was involved, as so many participants commented on the helpfulness and knowledge of the young volunteer team.

The 2008–9 YRG were keen to look at new ways of recruiting and retaining young people to be a part of the YRG for 2009–10. This led to a new streamlined YRG nomination form and some additional elements added to what is of-fered in the YRG, including an introductory camp and a meet and greet with YACVic staff. This recruitment ‘drive’ resulted in 22 applica-tions for YRG 2009–10, of which 15 young peo-ple were appointed and 13 actually were able to take up their positions. Their names and attend-ance are listed over the page.

"Here, Now & Next" conference volunteers

Gabby, Pat, Nic & Victoria

October 2009

The YRG have been extremely busy in 2010; a summary of activities, projects and consulta-tions is outlined below, and more detail can be found in Bianca de Bortoli's report on page 32.

• Ballaratcampandrolesettingfortheyear

• Developingashortfilmaboutwhoandwhat YACVic does, in order to appeal to young people: to be launched at the AGM in 2010 and to be put on YouTube and the YACVic website

• MeetingandinterviewingtheYouthMinister, James Merlino

• Puttingtogetherasuccessfulfundingbidto The Prime Minister’s Australian Youth Forum Challenge (AYF) to run a political forum for young people in Bendigo. The YRG received $5,500 to run the forum prior to November 2010

• TheYRGbeeninvitedtoruntwoworkshopson youth participation and ‘getting involved’ with students from the Distance Education Learning Centre and are working to put those workshops together for September 2010

YRG Meeting Attendance 09/10

Esther Ooi 5 6

Tim Ooi 6 6

Hugh Stephens 5 6

Pat Hamilton 6 6

Caitlin Hardy 5 6

Anushka Dantanarayana 5 6

Vu Long Tran 6 6

Bianca De Bortoli 5 6

Victoria McLure 5 6

Nic Kimberly 5 6

Vivek Foot 3 6

Victor Victor 4 6

Kerry Jenkins 6 6

MEETINGS ATTENDED SINCE JAN. 2009

ELIGIBLE TO ATTEND

26

In addition, the YRG have done two external consultations with the Victims Support Agency and the Department of Justice

As individuals they have attended the follow-ing activities/groups/consultations from Janu-ary 2010–June 2010:

• COSTResearchTrainingSchool2010on Cyberbullying

• AdvisorygroupontheLordMayorsTrust Fund roundtable

• YoungPersonsUNconsultation

• AttendedYACVicBoardandPAGmeetings

• Becameayoungrepresentativeontheadvisory board for the ‘Young Victims Support Agency’ group

YRG YAK with her fans.

October 2009

Other YACvic youth participation work:• Consumerconsultations(ACCCandCAV)

• YouthinkForum

• DevelopingyoungpeopletrainingdaysforYRG, VIYAC, YDAS and VicSRC

• SupportingOFY’sMYAC (Ministerial Youth Affairs Committee)

• Youngpeoplefromawidevarietyoforganisations across Victoria taking part in organising and delivering sessions as part of the YACVic ‘Here, Now, Next’ Conference

• FedintoVictorianLawReformCommissionreview of surveillance in public places and worked with Youthlaw to hold consultation and endorsed their submission

The role of Young Media Spokesperson is a clear indication of YACVic’s commitment to the prac-tice of meaningful and engaging youth partici-pation. The existence of this role communicates to outside observers that young people are in fact valuable citizens today and not just a hope for the future. This is just one role which YACVic make available for young people to feel involved and respected.

In my role as Young Media Spokesperson this year I have tried my hardest to represent YACVic within the media. Being a double election year there have been chances for me to field media questions in relation to election policies and is-sues, particularly in relation to young people. Leading up to the end of the financial year, I was fortunate enough to be invited to be a spokes-person for the Victorian Electoral Commission. In this role I was promoted as the Young Media Spokesperson for YACVic within print and radio media. Throughout my dealings with the media I not only strived to promote YACVic as key youth policy advocates, but also young people as key stakeholders in the issues which affect them.

Within this role I have also had the opportu-nity to act as liaison between the Board of Gov-ernance and Youth Reference Group. My key goal for this task was to strengthen communication between the two bodies, keeping them updated on what the other is doing. Furthermore this task has not only allowed me to be involved in decision making processed within the organisa-tion but also the chance to work with a fantas-tically diverse group of young people on some great projects.

I would like to thank all the staff, volunteers and members of YACVic for electing me and sup-porting me in this role. I would also like to com-mend YACVic for sustaining this position and creating opportunities like it which capitalise on the strengths and abilities of young people. This year has given me faith in my capabilities to significantly contribute in society today and I now know that I am far more valuable than ‘po-tential’ for tomorrow.

Imagine a world where young people are considered capable decision makers and their opinions deemed valuable. Now stop imagining. Because YACVic opens up the doors to a world where young people are recognised as experts and are given opp- ortunities to meaningfully participate.

Young Media SpokespersonVICTORIA MCLURE

28

YACVic’s 2009 Statewide Conference“Here, Now & Next”

YACVic’s conference, held in Ballarat in October 2009, was a huge success. Over 300 people attended, including 70 young people. 10 young volunteers assisted YACVic staff with regis-trations and general organisation at the venue. The volunteers were integral in leading delegates to the five different streams of workshops, with the themes of Here, Now, Next, A closer look, Need to Know and Youth.

29

Some of the feedback included:“I gained new info from all areas of the conference, too much to mention but I feel sure that itwillsupportmeinmyroleasaYouthDevelopmentWorkerasIhaveonlybeeninthisfieldof work for a short time. Thank you.”

“I look forward to attending more YACVic conferences in the future to build on my knowledge and to have the opportunity to network with other organisations and young people”.

“Really amazing! I had such a good time!”

“I would really like to commend YACVic for holding the conference in different locations each year, particularly regional locations… It’s great not to be so ‘city central’.

“Just keep doing them. They are such a great opportunity for everyone working within the youthsector….Butalsoprovideanotherwayofraisingtheprofileofthesectorasanactive/political and dynamic profession. THANKYOU!”

The conference had several focus areas including young people and alcohol, young people and new and emerging technologies and the professionalisation of the youth sector.

The conference received positive feedback from many of the attendees via survey monkey, some die-hard YACVic fans reporting that it was the best YACVic conference they have ever attended!

The induction of the new Youth Reference Group (YRG) presented a whirlwind of ex-citement. From every angle, ideas circulated about the upcoming year, and it wasn’t long before we were engrossed within a web of social interaction. As we were briefed on the adventures to come, excitement was defi-nitely at an all time high. The room now filled with excited voices, brainstorms and strate-gic ways as to how we can tackle upcoming tasks, first on the agenda was the allocation of roles within the YRG.

The YRG set off on an adventure to the one and only Sovereign Hill. The weekend stay was a blast. The allocation of roles was a hot topic as members enthusiastically nominated them-selves for tasks and upcoming projects. This was soon complete and the next item on the agenda was: ‘YACVic in Plain English ’ This was a mission to create a short film in order to explain who and what YACVic is, in a way that would be accessi-ble and fun for young people. Ideas flew around the room and it wasn’t long before story boards were sketched and ready to be filmed.

Over the next few months, the YRG was lucky enough to undergo training with ACMI (Austral-ian Centre for the Moving Image) giving us the opportunity to work with media equipment as well as being exposed to an array of story board-ing techniques and textual methods. In this way the YRG were well and truly ready for the moun-tain of work that lay ahead. Filming schedules, characters, scripting, editing- we were on the ball and we were all eager for the debut of the Yak as it entered the building in a rather secre-tive manner. The looks on individual’s faces were priceless, and the laughs endless as we were now involved in a whole new world. The Yak has con-tinued to show up throughout the year, with guest appearances at a Policy Advisory Group Meeting, forums, flying down Flinders Street to post “documents of high importance,” as well as striking a pose on the steps of Parliament House. The YRG members are thrilled with the feature-film’s progress and thanks to the technologically savvy members of the group, the editing is well under way. The film is due to be launched at the YACVic 50th Birthday celebration and AGM in September 2010.

Youth Reference GroupBIANCA De BORTOLI YRG member 2009–2010

This isn’t all we have been doing, we have also been involved in a whole range of consultations including: Victorian Department of Justice, Consumer Affairs Victoria and and the Lord Mayor’s Trust Foundation. In addition, we also had a meeting with James Merlino, Minister for Youth and Sport and Recreation, which allowed us to voice our concerns and gain an insight into what lay ahead for young people regarding Vic-torian Government initiatives.

In the midst of all the hard work, we saw yet another opportunity to encourage youth par-ticipation in the shape of a youth political fo-rum. After numerous discussions, and the grant application written, it was sent off with our fingers crossed. It was final! We had received a grant from the ‘Australian Youth Forum Chal-lenge’ to the value of $5,500, on the ball. Now we are working to put together the whole project plan, with the forum due to happen towards the

end of September. The plan is to engage young people in and around Bendigo, so that they will have the opportunity to engage with politicians on a less formal scale in the run up to the state election, gaining knowledge on important issues that affect them, as well as hearing about vari-ous political parties.

We are all looking forward to the rest of the year and the opportunities that are presented in the near future. It has been a great privilege to work with such amazing individuals and I would highly recommend youth get involved in every chance, they can to make a difference within both their community and their state. It is not often that individuals are presented with so many opportunities and I am extremely grateful for not only being able to interact with a group of ‘like-minded’ people, but also having the abil-ity to grow and develop skills which will benefit me greatly within the future.

Members of the Youth Reference Group

with Minister James Merlino

May 2010

Media & Communications

JOE COLLIER

The year has been certainly fled by with numer-ous tasks for the Comms Officer. One of the major jobs of the year was putting together all the material for YACVic's conference, Here, Now and Next Programs and t-shirts, badges and feedback forms... it was a hectic few weeks, but also a rewarding one.

Our website, www.yacvic.org.au, continues to be a key destination for visitors looking for in-formation on issues affecting young people. At time of writing, we've had over 2,000 unique visitors, with 1,500 of these hits coming from within Victoria. Over 50% of hits are from peo-ple using search engines to track down the site, with our 'Sector News' page being one of the more popular pages.

Yikes! is our print newsletter which is sent out to all YACVic members on a bi-monthly basis. In the past year, we've covered a diverse range of topics, often tying in with YACVic forums and events. Announce, our email bulletin, has this year undergone an upgrade to rich-HTML styled content. This has allowed us to include hyper-links, bookmarks and other features to increase ease of use for our readership.

Our thanks goes out to all of our members who have contributed to our regular publications and website throughout the year.

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was putting the finishing touches on last year's Annual Report!

The grant allowed us to pull together a team of young people, advocates, a film maker, writer and illustrator who developed a dynamic re-source which includes short films, colourful il-lustrations and a guide for young people to bet-ter understand how to plan for life transitions and use their Individual Support Packages in a way that is flexible and responsive to their indi-vidual needs. Our project worker Rebecca worked tirelessly writing the guide and co-ordinating the project which is available on the new YDAS website along with a range of other projects that YDAS has delivered over the years.In other project work, the Live Access project—a YDAS initiative to improve access for young peo-ple with disabilities to more age-appropriate lei-sure options such as live music, clubs, bars and nightclubs—reached an important milestone, by launching the www.liveaccess.org.au web-site. The website that was partly funded from a City of Port Phillip community grant, provides much-needed access information about venues as well as important tools for young people with disabilities to advocate for better access. The site also includes useful information and resources for venue owners to make their venues more inclusive of people with disabilities. YDAS was

Youth Disability Advocacy Service

DR. GEORGE TALAPOROS

YDAS began the year with news that we had been successful in our grant application to the Department of Human Services Capac-ity Building Initiative where we sought fund-ing to develop a resource for young people with disabilities to assist them to actively participate in planning.

Stella Young from the YDAS Short "Carbon Whore"

successful in obtaining grant funding from the City of Melbourne to promote the Live Ac-cess project by hosting an International Day for Persons with Disabilities live music event in December.

In April, the YDAS Shorts took centre stage at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square for National Youth Week. Our highly acclaimed short films by and about young people with disabilities were screened back to back for the first time in a full-scale cinema. The audience response was extremely positive and re-quests to purchase and screen the films have been coming through ever since. YDAS Shorts continue to screen in film festivals locally and around the world and we are receiving increasing reports that they are being used as a training resource and awareness raising tool.

The projects, systemic advocacy and policy work that we undertake continued to be direct-ed by the YDAS steering committee that met on ten occasions. Long-standing members Mario

Filintatzis and Hannah Phillips were sadly fare-welled from the steering committee. Mario’s contribution over the last three years has been outstanding as he represented YDAS on a range of youth advisory groups and contributed sig-nificantly as a volunteer, especially on the Live Access project and YDAS Shorts Hannah brought both professional and personal skills to the steering committee, particularly in the area of leisure, recreation and body image. The YDAS induction pack was initiated by Hannah and will be a lasting legacy from future committee members to benefit from. These vacancies were filled by 15-year-old Tabi Senda and 22-year-old Maysa Abouzeid who both bring a wealth of knowledge to the group, specifically in relation to issues affecting young people from a CALD background.

Our individual advocacy service continued to be responsive and supportive to the needs and interests of young people with disabilities across Victoria. Access and support in the education system was the most common area of need. Our Advocacy interventions were largely directed at calling on schools and the relevant staff to im-plement the necessary supports, and make their schools more inclusive of students with disabili-ties. A significant number of complaints related to the need for planning and timely responses by the Department of Human Services and Child Protective Services for young people leaving state care. Effective case management interven-tions are sorely lacking which has led to young people seeking advocacy support from our serv-ice. YDAS advocate Martin Healy, continued to receive high praise from clients, with his work

consistently resulting in desired outcomes for young people with disabilities.

The YDAS Self Advocacy Training weekend workshop took place in March and is a regular feature on the YDAS annual workplan, a reflec-tion of our commitment to support young people to develop strong advocacy skills for themselves and their communities. Eight young people with disabilities took part with many travelling from rural and regional areas including Sale, Morn-ington, Bairnsdale, Bendigo and Gippsland. This year, we received support from sponsors includ-ing DHS Rural Access and the National Dis-ability Coordination Officer (NDCO) program to support young people with disabilities from regional areas to attend the program.

YDAS continued to invest in policy reform in the interests of young people with disabilities through submission writing, participating in public hearings and consultations, and advising on relevant committees and advisory groups. YDAS continues to work closely with the De-partment of Human Services on systemic issues,

particularly in relation to self-directed supports, industry planning and quality services for peo-ple with disabilities. In June, YDAS received a grant from DHS to undertake consultations with young people with disabilities on the revised Na-tional Disability Standards. That month we also presented at a public hearing by the Productivity Commission’s investigation into disability care and support. We also undertook policy work with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, the Office for Disabil-ity and a range of other government and non-government bodies to represent the interests of young people with disabilities.

The work and achievements this year were made possible by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers, too many to mention in this space. I am grateful to the entire steering committee, my colleagues at the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria and the many YDAS supporters in our sector and beyond who believe in our work and our commitment to voice the interests of young people disabilities loudly and clearly.

Convivial patrons enjoy the inaugural “Live Access” event

Northcote Social Club, June 2009

In January 2010, VIYAC appointed Clarisse Slater the first ever VIYAC Project Officer. Clar-isse is a young Yorta Yorta and Kamilaroi wom-an. Clarisse completed high school in 2007 and then continued on to study a Bachelor of Be-havioural Science at La Trobe University. Clar-isse has worked in a number of different roles including as Youth Health Promotion Officer at the Victorian Aboriginal Community Control-led Health Organisation (VACCHO) and Cus-tomer Service agent at Qantas Airways. She has had the opportunity to participate in a number of leadership courses such as Oxfam’s CHANGE Course for Indigenous young people nationwide and FaHCSIA’s Youth Leadership program.

With the inclusion of a Project Officer, VIYAC has developed its capacity to enable more mean-ingful engagement with Indigenous young peo-ple and their communities. In the last 12 months VIYAC has visited Bendigo, Ballarat, Warrnam-bool, Benalla, Shepparton, Portland, Heywood, Traralgon and Swan Hill. On these visits VIYAC had the opportunity to discuss with Indigenous

While reflecting on the past 12 months I have a song in my head called “From Little Things Big Things Grow.” In a sense this is how I am feeling about the progression and development of the Victorian Indigenous Youth Advisory Council (VIYAC). Over the past 12 months VIYAC has been extremely busy and very proactive in advocating for Indigenous young people and raising aware-ness of issues they face.

Victorian Indigenous Youth Advisory Council

TIM KANOA

37

young people issues that are important to them and also provide them with an opportunity to become involved with VIYAC. Our visits were also an opportunity to create dialogue with Community Controlled Organisations and oth-ers who are engaging directly with Indigenous young people.

In February 2010, VIYAC hosted the ‘Com-munity Spirit Police Award’ to promote the key importance of positive relationships between police and Indigenous young people. The Com-munity Spirit Police Award focuses on the posi-tive work some police members are doing with Indigenous young people. This award was the idea of the young people from VIYAC. VIYAC

wanted to ensure that those police officers who are doing great work with Indigenous young peo-ple are recognised in a positive way. The event was successful with Chief Commissioner Simon Overland attending the event to give an address on the importance of positive relationships be-tween police and Indigenous young people.

Recipients of the award were: Winner: Acting Senior Sergeant Shane Keogh Runner Up: Senior Constable Joe Clarke Acknowledgement Award: Senior Constable Mellissa Peters

Senior Constable Mellissa Peters,

Acting Senior Sergeant Shane Keogh &

Senior Constable Joe Clarke

Recipients of the “Community Spirit

Police Award”

In April 2010, VIYAC successfully hosted a National Youth Week (NYW) event (funded by the Office for Youth) – the ‘Indigenous Young Parents Forum’. The forum was a space for Indig-enous young parents to come together, network and have a conversation about being a young par-ent. The scene was set by a panel discussion of young parents as well as an inspirational speak-er Helena Gonebale, who shared her experiences of becoming a young parent. Services available to Indigenous young parents also attended to share information and hear from the young peo-ple. From the forum, VIYAC was able to gain in-formation that will enable us to advocate as best we can for Indigenous young parents.

VIYAC has met 3 times over the last 12 months in regional locations of Victoria. These meetings are an opportunity for VIYAC to focus on our strategic planning objectives and planning our activities. VIYAC members indicated that they would like their meetings to provide opportuni-ties to move away from the westernised style of meeting. All 3 meetings gave an opportunity to visit culturally significant sites including Fram-lingham Aboriginal Mission, William Rickets Sanctuary and a tour of the Melbourne Muse-ums’ Aboriginal Artefacts collection. Our next meeting will be held in August 2010.

VIYAC continues to provide meaningful ad-vice to Government regarding Indigenous young people. The Departments and agencies VIYAC

has been involved with are DEECD, AAV, DOJ, and the Ministerial Task Force on Aboriginal Af-fairs. We have also begun dialogue with the Vic-torian Electoral Commission (VEC), to provide advice on improving the enrolment of Indig-enous young people to vote. We have also given advice to a number of organisations including the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC), Richmond Foot-ball Club, Indigenous Leadership Network Victo-ria, the Koorie Heritage Trust and the Austral-ian Drug Foundation.

A future focus for VIYAC is to work on re-branding and to allow greater engagement of In-digenous young people from regional, rural and urban areas of Victoria. We aim to utilise social media and other forms of media to enable this to happen. We will be doing more regional and rural visits giving Indigenous young people an opportunity to become involved.

VIYAC will also be hosting a Statewide gather-ing in August for Indigenous young people. The gathering will be an opportunity for Indigenous young people to celebrate their culture and her-itage, showcase their talent and be made aware of pathways that are available to them.

Overall it has been a big year for VIYAC and another step in the right direction. As VIYAC continues to progress further I think we will al-ways be reminded that “From Little Things Big Things Grow.”

More schools then ever have been involved in VicSRC initiatives; through our membership, student conferences, cluster groups and our 2009 Congress meeting. Our hope is that our 2010 congress will continue this trend and we will have the highest numbers of students across the broadest range of schools in attendance.

The 2009–10 year has proven to be very busy, particularly with the Special Purpose funding grant we received from the Department of Edu-cation and Early Childhood Development. This grant has allowed the VicSRC to take on a number of additional projects aimed at engaging and sup-porting students, teachers and principals to get involved in and encourage SRC initiatives within their schools and the wider communities.

We have also continued in our core business of supporting real student participation, work-ing with schools, developing partnerships with community and working with the DEECD to achieve our outcomes within our funding agree-ments. Our funding agreement outcomes always reflect our major goal to increase student voice in schools and advocate for greater student involve-ment in decision making processes.

Victorian Student Representative

Council

KATE WALSH

It’s great to be able to report after a year in the role as VicSRC Coordinator that the VicSRC has continued to grow and engage even greater numbers of Victorian second-ary school students in our programs and networks.

Some of the highlights from this past year include:The VicSRC has commissioned and produced a comprehensive SRC Resource Kit which is due to be published by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development before the end of 2010. The Kit includes topics, such as

• Why have an SRC • Who should be on an SRC • Event management • Using technology effectively • Credit and recognition for work on SRCs • And much more!

It will be fantastic to have such a comprehen-sive resource at our disposal to encourage good practice in schools with relatively new SRC and to help refine SRCs who already function at a high level.

The VicSRC has held thirteen Regional Stu-dent Conferences in 2009/10 and are planning to hold six more in regional areas before the end of the year. The focus of the conferences has been on core SRC business – induction, commu-nication, leadership, evaluating effectiveness of your SRC and increasing participation. Confer-ences aim to further develop participant’s lead-ership skills, present opportunities to exchange ideas and share information as well as practice and build specific skills and knowledge to em-power students to further grow and improve their SRC’s. The conferences have been facilitat-ed by Erin Young, a project worker employed by the VicSRC. We are very grateful to Erin for the

fantastic work she has done involving over 70 schools throughout the conference series so far!

Our monthly Student Executive meetings bring together our fifteen Exec members to dis-cuss a variety of relevant issues and concerns and provide feedback, advice and direction around the work of the VicSRC. The Student Executive is continually giving thought as to how the Vic-SRC can continue to grow as an organisation and work with as many students across Victoria as possible. Increasing the diversity of students we work with and support, as well as appealing to diverse groups of students through our website, resources and events will become a priority in the years ahead.

The inaugural SRC Recognition awards were launched in March 2010 with the award winner’s ceremony to be held at Congress in August. The awards were established to recognise the work of successful SRCs in secondary schools around Victoria. There will be three awards offered this year—the Connect Award for Integration, the Second Strike Award for Enterprise and the VASSP Award for Informed Representation

The VicSRC, in collaboration with VASSP and DEECD, produced a resource for principals en-titled “Developing Student Participation, Engage-ment and Leadership: A Guide for Principals" The resource is a double sided A4 brochure outlining what makes an effective SRC, why SRCs are valu-able and how principals can best equip and sup-port SRC teachers.

These are just a number of the fantastic ini-tiatives that the VicSRC have been a part of in 2009/10!

41

A huge thank you must go the most successful and determined Student Executive group yet! We held an election for places in the Student Executive for the first time ever at Congress in 2009. Places were highly sought after and the students who were voted on to the Execu-tive felt very privileged to gain a place! The Exec has worked extremely hard throughout the year to achieve our many goals set at Congress and guide our numerous SRC focused projects.

Current & former VicSRC Executive members:

Holly Burr, Georgie Kennelly and

Tiffany Chapman

Thanks also goes to our wonderful and stead-fast supporters David Mould and Roger Holds-worth, YACVic for proving us with a home and ongoing support and the Department of Edu-cation and Early Childhood Development for committing to promoting student voice through funding the VicSRC.

After a 10 minute drive, you arrive at the po-lice station, to a young person who has been ar-rested. They might not want to talk to you, they might be intoxicated, they might be angry, but underneath they’re probably pretty scared and worried about what’s happening. You’re the only one who’s there for them.

This is what YRIPP’s volunteer Independent Persons do all the time—support young peo-ple through police interviews where a parent or guardian is unavailable, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are there to make sure the young per-son is ok, that they know what will happen dur-ing their time in police custody and what their legal rights are. They also provide an independ-ent account of the interview, ensuring that it was fair. YRIPP volunteers also refer young peo-ple to support services to reduce their chances of future offending.

Funded by the State Government and jointly managed by the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria and the Centre for Multicultural Youth, YRIPP is delivered in partnership with Community Legal Centres in metropolitan areas and UnitingCare in rural areas. Victoria Police are also key part-ners in the program’s implementation.

YRIPP now has over 350 trained volunteers who provide support to young people in over 100 police stations across the State. Each month,

Imagine being woken up at 3am on a Sunday night by a call centre asking you to attend your local police station. You quickly throw on some clothes, splash some water on your face, grab your car keys and a mint, and head out the door (you can forget about the hair!).

Youth Referral & Independent Person

Program

VIVIANNE DIAS

43

we support close to 250 young people through police interviews with around a quarter coming from diverse cultural backgrounds and another 10% from Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

This year YRIPP was awarded by Parents With-out Partners Australia for “distinguished service to children”. From a parent’s perspective, know-ing that someone is there for your young person when you can’t be, is incredibly reassuring. This quote from a parent says it all:

“I would like to sincerely thank Lachlan for his attendance at Melbourne East Police Station yesterday arvo to attend an inter-view with my son. I am really thankful that such a service as YRIPP exists. Thankyou!”

The YRIPP team has also been working hard to secure ongoing funding for the program, and recognition at a policy level for the contribution that YRIPP makes to early intervention and di-version approaches in the youth justice system. We remain anticipative of the Victorian Law Re-form Commission’s recommendations about leg-islative change concerning support provided to young people in police interviews.

We would once again like to thank all our part-ner agencies for their ongoing support. But most importantly we thank all our volunteers who continue to put the needs of vulnerable young people ahead of other things going on in their lives. We look forward to continuing to work with you in 2011.

YRIPP North Metro Co-ordinator Emma Read

with volunteers Nadia and Hannah, alongside

Sergeant Petey

Carlton Police Station Open Day,

October 2009

However, at CHP we have been pleased and im-pressed with the recent rollout of the resource commitment to reducing homelessness, which stemmed from the federal government’s "The Road Home: A New Approach to Reducing Home-lessness" framework document released in December 2008.

The National Partnership Agreements in all states and territories were negotiated between the Commonwealth and state governments under the National Affordable Housing Agree-ment. As a result, we have seen the delivery of a number of new initiatives under the NPAs on Homelessness and Social Housing across the country. In Victoria this includes 4,500 new so-cial and public housing properties, however it is important to note that some of these at least will not be affordable for young people on low incomes under current subsidy models.

While we await the release of the new Home-lessness 2020 strategy in Victoria—which builds on the Victorian Homelessness Strategy and in the youth space the Youth Homelessness Action Plan Stage 2, now extended to June 2011—Na-tion Building initiatives include the roll out of two new youth refuges, increased funding for youth refuges operations and entry and exit

In Victoria, young people aged between 12 and 25 years number almost 7,000 accord-ing to the 2006 Census. We know this is an undercount and does not take into account the recent impact of the housing affordabil-ity crisis.

Council to Homeless Persons

JANE LAZZARI YouthPolicyOfficer

packs, two Foyer-like supported housing models with a focus on education and employment to be located in regional centres and dual diagno-sis workers located in both youth homelessness and community health centres. These new pro-grams are most welcome and continue to build on youth homelessness responses.

Under federal reforms we have also seen a re-view of the Supported Accommodation and As-sistance Program Act and the development of a National Quality Framework. Each of these ini-tiatives has involved comprehensive consulta-tion and submissions processes still in progress. CHP has participated actively in these, with new CHP CEO Michelle Burrell facilitating the Vic-torian National Quality Framework consulta-tion as well as CHP running consumer forums to obtain quality consumer input, on behalf of Housing and Community Building, Department of Human Services.

At the organisational level, as well as getting a new CEO on board after former CEO Deb Tsor-baris accepted a position as Director of Housing Services at Department of Human Services, a new Policy and Communications team has been established. Sarah Kahn moved from Washing-ton DC to take up the position of Manager of the PCU team. In addition, from 1st July 2010 the youth policy role will shift to a generalist policy position that has for the first time been recurrently funded by Housing and Commu-nity Building. This was a decision made by CHP in order to free up the role to take on new ini-tiatives. I wish to reassure youth advocates that the youth focus will not be lost in this change and will form fifty per cent of the work, and is

built into the strategic plan and the work plan for the position. Subsequently, the co-auspice arrangement that has existed for seven years with YACVic will cease. However, the partner-ship between the two agencies remains intact. I am pleased to be a member of YACVic’s Policy Action Group, and presented at the YACVic 2009 conference in Ballarat.

Current work in the role includes:• advocacytogovernmentbytheYouthRefuge Co-ordinators Network on access to entry points thatisyouth-specificandtimelyresponses

• representationonthereferencegroupforthe Young Victims Strategy, Department of Justice whichspecificallyincludesyounghomelesspeople

• VictorianrepresentationontheNationalYouth Coalition for Housing, with a focus on the Youth Homelessness Matters Day campaign for 2011

• Moregenerally,cross-governmentadvocacyon policy and service integration between homeless- ness and mainstream services according to the National Partnership Agreement.

I would like to thank YACVic for its ongoing commitment to recognising young people who are homeless and those who are at risk of home-lessness as a specific and significant group of vulnerable young Victorians. I look forward to continuing collaborations with YACVic in the coming years.

46

Membership totals for 09/10At a glance

09/10 saw an increase in memberships, up from 292 in the 08/09 financial year. The increase was predominantly in the individual concession and young person categories.

TOTAL: 361

Membership

LIZ LEAHY

Office&EventsCoordinator

47

Membership totals for 09/10Detailed membership breakdown

Additional/Associate/ Reciprocal Member

Government Body

Individual Concession

Individual Member

Local Government (Regional/Rural & Metro)

Organisation C: less than 100k

Organisation D: 100k–500k

Organisation E: 500k–1M

Organisation F: 1M+

Under 25

VicSRC/VIYAC/YDAS Member

18

20

32

18

5

18

17

19

29

168

16

As well as receiving our bi-monthly newsletter Yikes, our fortnightly e-bulletin Announce and our e-zine YACBITES (young members only), YACVic also have a Facebook page, Facebook fan site and can be followed on Twitter Our aim is to keep our members informed of the goings on within YACVic and the youth sector via as many outlets as possible.

This financial year saw the introduc-tion of two new categories, being Local Government Regiona/Rural and Local Government Metro. It was important that local Government youth services could become mem-bers without the whole council’s budget being taken into account.

48

Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies (ACYS)

Australian Red Cross Victoria

Australian Technical College Sunshine

Barwon Youth

Bass Coast Shire Council

Bayside City Council–Youth Services

Bayside Glen Eira Kingston LLEN

Berry Street

beyondblue

Brimbank City Council

Brophy Family & Youth Services Inc

Brotherhood of St Laurence

Campaspe Cohuna LLEN

Capital City LLEN

Carers Victoria

Centacare Ballarat

Central Grampians LLEN

Centre for Excellence in Child & Fam-ily Welfare

Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY)

Child & Family Services–Ballarat Inc

City of Boroondara–Youth Services

City of Casey

City of Greater Bendigo– Youth Services

City of Greater Geelong– Youth Development Unit

City of Whittlesea

City of Wodonga–Youth Services

City of Yarra

Cobaw Community Health

Connections UnitingCare

Council to Homeless Persons (CHP)

Deptartment of Education, Employ-ment & Workplace Relations

DHS–Youth Justice

Disability Professionals Victoria

Domestic Violence And Incest Re-source Centre

DOXA Youth Foundation

Education Centre Gippsland

Express Media

Family Access Network Inc

Family Life

Financial and Consumer Rights Council

Fitzroy Adventure Playground Inc

Frontyard Youth Services

Gateway Community Health

Gippsland East Local Learning & Employment Network

Good Shepherd Youth & Family Serv-ice Inc

Hanover–Windsor

Headspace Barwon

Hepburn Shire Council

Highlands Local Learning & Employ-ment Network Inc (LLEN)

Hobart City Council

Hobsons Bay City Council, Social Planning and Development

Homesglen Institute of TAFE

Hume City Council–Youth Services

Incolink

Job Watch

Kildonan Uniting Care

Knox Youth Services

Latitude: Directions for Young People Inc

Latrobe City Council

Lord Somers Camp and Power House

Macedon Ranges Shire Council

MacKillop Family Services

Maribyrnong City Council

Maroondah City Council– Youth Services

Organisational Memberships 09/10Please note: for privacy reasons YACVic does not publish details of individual members

49

Melboune Uni Library

Merri Community Health Service

Mildura Rural City Council (Youth Services)

Mission Australia

Moonee Valley City Council

Moorabool Shire Council

Mornington Peninsula Shire Council

NMIT–Preston

North Central Local Learning & Employment Network

North East LLEN

North East Support & Action for Youth Inc

North Melbourne Institute of TAFE

North Richmond Community Health Centre

Northern District Community Health Service

NSW Association for Adolescent Health (NAAH)

NZAAHD

Quit Victoria

RMIT–Youth Work

Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Childcare Inc (SNAICC)

SHINE For Kids

Shire of Campaspe

Shire of Yarra Ranges Youth Services

South East Local Learning & Employ-ment Network

South Gippsland Bass Coast LLEN

South West Local Learning and Em-ployment Network

South West TAFE

St Kilda Youth Service Inc

St Lukes Family Care–Anglicare

State Library of Victoria

Stonnington Youth Services

Streetwork Outreach Service

Surf Coast Shire–Youth Services

Swinburne University of Technology

The Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation

The Push Incorporated

The Salvation Army–Karinya

UnitingCare Cutting Edge (UCCE)

University of Ballarat

University of Melbourne–Library

UNYA Victoria

Victoria University–Youth Studies

Victorian Applied Learning Associa-tion (VALA)

Victorian Electoral Commission

Victorian Police Youth Affairs Unit

Victorian Youth Mentoring Alliance

Whitelion

Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN Inc

Wodonga Institute of TAFE

Wombat Housing and Support Services

Women’s Health Goulburn North East

Word and Mouth

Wyndham City Council–Youth Service

YMCA Victoria

Young People’s Health Service

Youth Action & Policy Association NSW (YAPA)

Youth Affairs Council of South Aus-tralia (YACSA)

Youth Affairs Network of Queensland (YANQ)

Youth Coalition of the ACT

Youth Connect

Youth Development Australia Ltd

Youth Research Centre

Youth Substance Abuse Service (YSAS)

Youthlaw

Financial report

A turnover of 1.18 million was generated; an overall income increase of 23%. Government grants provided core funding of $604,813 with an additional $69,000 received to fa-cilitate the Vic Health "Step Back Think" program. The successful (bi-annual) State Conference was held in Ballarat in October 2009 and through registrations and sponsor-ship raised income of $101,280. Both Inter-est Income and Membership Income remained steady with slight increases in both areas. Income received of $140,998 was unspent at 30th June and has been rolled over to cover projects being undertaken in 2010-11.

Expenditure increased by 25% in comparison to the previous financial year, however was well under budget with savings of $71,467 (6%). Previous year comparisons show ris-ing accommodation costs due to the hike in rental costs and associated outgoings. Communications costs rose dramatically due to the development of the YDAS Website and the upgrade of the YACVIC Server. Project Costs, along with Sector Development and Consultation costs rose in line with ad-ditional project funding. Salary and on costs rose by 18% which factored in annual salary increases, and additional project worker hours.

The YACVIC Balance Sheet shows a substan-tial increase in equity of $66,732 from the previous year. This is in part due to the $44,231 profit for the period along with the re-allocation of the Provision for Member Services of $17,829. Note; these

funds will be utilised as part of the 50th Year Celebrations in the 2010-11 financial year. 2009–10 Copyright income of $8,000 will also contribute to funding this event. Current assets have increased mar-ginally by $6,390 while non-current assets have decreased by $8,698 due to standard depreciation charges. Current liabilities have been reduced due to the transfer of previous year prepaid conference registra-tions and the redemption of the conference provision of $30,000.

Annual leave, Long Service leave and Paren-tal leave provisions have been calculated in line with current statutory require-ments to accurately reflect the organisa-tions true risk and ensure all possible future liabilities are met.

This year has again seen an increase in core funding as well as more individual projects which has in turn required a more streamlined, project orientated presenta-tion of financial reports.

The 2009-10 audited figures shown in this annual report reflect a healthy organisa-tion in a strong financial position. I de-clare the financial figures as a true and correct account of our year’s trade and look forward to a successful 2010-11.

The 2009–10 financial year saw YACVIC report a $44,231 surplus. In line with the previous year’s $47,759 result this is a consistently healthy outcome for YACVIC and the Victorian Youth Sector.

Bridie Hudson Finance Sub-Committee Member

Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Inc.Balance SheetAs at 30 June 2010 2010 2009

$ $Equity

Retained Earnings 228,395 163,663

Total Equity 228,395 163,663

Represented by:

Current AssetsPetty Cash 1,998 656Cash at Bank - NAB Business Mngt 15,319 90,046Cash at Bank - NAB Cash Mngt 18,568 14,640Cash at Bank - Term Deposit 31,440 29,890Cash at Bank - Business Cash Maximiser 543,250 519,957Deposits 300 300Rental Property Bond - 3,820Sundry Debtors 1,007 7,476Accounts Receivable 110,492 35,350Prepayments 742 14,593Provision for GST - -

723,118 716,728Non-Current AssetsOffice Furniture & Equipment 78,650 73,101Less Accumulated Depreciation 67,352 55,107

11,298 17,994

Furniture & Fittings 13,795 13,795Less Accumulated Depreciation 9,362 7,360

4,433 6,435

15,731 24,429

Total Assets 738,849 741,157

Current Liabilities

Accounts Payable 6,989 18,409Other Creditors 25,971 30,053Provision for Conferences/Programs 99,000 129,000Provision for Annual Leave 33,837 25,813Provision for Members Services - 17,829Provision for Long Service Leave 48,120 36,203Provision for Parental Leave 40,149 21,941Provision for GST (7,243) 428Grants in Advance 254,776 262,302Memberships in Advance 8,856 10,380Conference Registration in Advance - 25,136 Total Liabilities 510,454 577,494

Net Assets 228,395 163,663

The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.

Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Inc.Income StatementAs at 30 June 2010

Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Inc.Statement of Changes in Equity For the Year ended June 2010

The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.

The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.

2010 2009 $ $IncomeAdministration Charge 75,484 68,155Forums & Training 12,693 3,993Memberships 25,832 25,371Conferences 101,288 -Interest Received 25,350 22,685Other Income 135,839 220,610Government Grants 604,813 556,609Other Grants 207,587 66,000Profit on Sale of Non-current Assets - -

1,188,886 963,423ExpenditureAccommodation 86,836 75,561Administration 131,183 137,204Communication 34,702 15,407Depreciation 14,246 16,211Equipment Purchase & Maintenance 1,185 1,335Leave Provisions 3,728 18,798Other Staff Costs 2,058 3,692Publications & Printing 15,350 7,127Prof. Development & Training 11,985 15,946Project Costs 119,595 67,718Salaries 585,182 492,798Sector Dev. & Consultation 83,173 12,512Superannuation Contributions 49,662 44,798Workcover 5,770 6,557

1,144,655 915,664

Operating Profit 44,231 47,759

2010 2009 $ $Retained Earnings at the beginning of the financial year 163,663 170,155Profit (Loss) attributable to members 44,231 47,759Rollovers - (54,251)Provision for Members Services Write-back 17,829 -Prior Year Adjustments 2,672 -

Retained Earnings At 30 June 2010 228,395 163,663

Financial report

Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Inc.Statement of Cash Flows For the Year ended June 2010

The accompanying notes form part of these financial statements.

NOTE 2. Reconciliation Of Net Cash Provided By Operating Activities To Operating Profit

Operating Profit(Loss) after income tax 44,231 47,759Depreciation 14,246 16,210Provisions 8,149 824Movements in Reserves 2,670 (54,251)(Increase)/decrease in debtors (72,524) (6,560)(Increase)/decrease in other current assets 13,851 (35,771)Increase/(decrease) in creditors (15,502) 28,645Increase/(decrease) in membership received in advance (1,524) 6,900Increase/(decrease) in grants in advance (7,526) 78,067Increase/(decrease) in registration in advance (25,136) 25,136

(39,065) 106,959

2010 2009 $ $ Cash Flow from Operating Activities Receipts from operating grants 604,813 665,748Receipts from members 24,308 32,271Interest received 25,350 22,685Other Receipts 427,705 246,817Payments to suppliers and employees (1,121,241) (860,562)

Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities (Note 2) (39,065) 106,959

Cash Flow from Investing ActivitiesProceeds from (payments for) property, plant and equipment (5,549) (1,212)

Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities (5,549) (1,212)

Cash Flow from Financing ActivitiesRepayment of Borrowings - -

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities - -

Net increase (decrease) in cash held (44,614) 105,747Cash at beginning of year 655,189 549,442

Cash at end of reporting period (Note 1) 610,575 655,189

Notes to the Statement of Cash FlowsNOTE 1. Reconciliation of Cash For the purposes of the statement of the cash flows, cash includes cash on hand and in at call deposits with banks or financial institutions, investments in money market instruments maturing within less than two months, net of bank overdrafts.

(a) Reconciliation of CashCash at the end of the reporting period as shown in the statement of cash flows is reconciled to the related items in the balance sheet as follows:

Cash at Bank 610,575 655,189

610,575 655,189

NOTE 1: STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

This financial report has been prepared for the use by the members of the Association and is a special purpose financial report. It has been prepared in order to satisfy the financial re-porting requirements of the Associations Incor-porations Act 1981 (Vic). The Board of Governance has determined that the Association is not a reporting entity.

The financial report has been prepared in accor-dance with the requirements of the Associations Incorporation Act 1981 (Vic) and the following Australian Accounting Standards:

AAS 1 Income Statement AAS 4 Depreciation on Non-Current Assets AAS 5 Materiality AAS 6 Accounting policies AAS 8 Events Occurring after Reporting Date AAS 28 Statement of Cash Flows AAS 36 Balance Sheet

No other applicable Australian Accounting Stan-dards, Urgent Issues Group Consensus Views or other authoritative pronouncements of the Aus-tralian Accounting Standards Board have been applied.

The financial report has also been prepared on an accruals basis and is based on histori-cal costs and does not take into account chang-ing money values or, except where specifically stated, current valuations of non-current assets.

The following specific accounting policies, which are consistent with the previous period, unless otherwise stated, have been adopted in the preparation of this report.

Fixed AssetsEach Class of Fixed Assets is carried at cost less, where applicable, any accumulated depre-ciation. All fixed assets are depreciated over their useful lives to the association commencing from the time the asset is held ready for use.

Employee EntitlementsProvision is made for payments to employees for their pro rata entitlement to annual leave.

Funding GrantsGeneral operating support grants from the De-partment of Victorian Communities are made on an annual basis and are fully brought to account during the financial year.

Specific project grants, generally made on a non profit or loss basis, are brought to account over the duration of the project, on the basis of actual costs incurred. Unexpended grants at year end, are carried forward in the balance sheet, as a liability to be matched against expenses in future periods.

Where the project period extends beyond year end, an assessment is made at year end as to the financial progress of projects by comparing ac-tual year to date costs against budgeted year to date costs. Where a significant cost overrun has been incurred, a provision for overrun is raised in the accounts to ensure that any significant losses are recognised in the period to which they relate.

Income Tax The Association is specifically exempt from tax under s(50)10 of the Income Tax Assessment Act, and in accordance with the restrictions imposed by exempt status, no asset or income of the As-sociation may be transferred to any member of the Association.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) Revenues, expenses and assets are recognized net of the amount of GST, except where the amount of the GST incurred is not recoverable from the Australian Taxation Office. In these circum-stances the GST is recognized as part of the cost of the acquisition of the asset or as part of an item of the expense. Receivables and payables in the Balance Sheet are shown inclusive of GST.

Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Inc. Notes to and forming part of the Financial StatementsFor the Year ended 30th June 2010

Financial report

The Board of Governance has determined that the as-sociation is not a reporting entity and therefore, there is no requirement to apply Australian Ac-counting Standards and other mandatory professional reporting requirements in the preparation of these financial statements.

The Board has determined that this special purpose financial report should be prepared in accordance with the accounting policies outlined in Note 1 to the financial statements.

In the opinion of the Board the financial report as set out:

a) Presents a true & fair view of the association’s financial position as at 30 June 2008 and its per-formance for the financial year ended on that date.

b) At the date of this statement there are reason-able grounds to believe that the association will be able to meet its debts as and when they fall due.

This statement is made in accordance with a res-olution of the Board of Governance and is signed for and on behalf of the Board by

Lucas Ryan (Chairperson)

(pp) Toni Jenkins (Treasurer)

Dated this 13TH day of SEPTEMBER 2010

Aliso

n Ro

mer

il, D

isabi

lity

Serv

ices

Div

isio

n, D

epar

tmen

t of

Hum

an S

ervi

ces

Andr

ew C

umm

ings

and

the

AYA

C te

amAn

drew

Chi

a, M

APS

Adol

esce

nt In

tens

ive

Man

agem

ent T

eam

, Au

stin

Hea

lthAr

iel C

ouch

man

, Tiff

any

Ove

rall

and

the

Yout

hlaw

Tea

mAl

ex M

arkh

amBe

rnie

Gea

ry a

nd t

he C

hild

Saf

ety

Com

mis

sion

Team

BrendanKlim

ek,OfficeofthePublicAdvocate

Bron

wyn

Eva

nsCa

rmel

Gue

rra

and

the

CM

Y Te

amCa

ssan

dra

Di C

enso

, Chi

ld a

nd A

dole

scen

t are

a M

enta

l Hea

lth

Serv

ices

Cath

Sm

ith a

nd t

he V

COSS

Tea

mCh

erry

Grim

wad

e, C

ity o

f Mel

bour

neCh

rissy

Sin

gh, S

tonn

ingt

on Y

outh

Ser

vice

sCr

eate

Fou

ndat

ion

Chris

ta M

omot

and

the

Rei

chst

ein

team

Dr

Lyne

tte

Buoy

and

the

Tea

m a

t the

Cen

tre

for

Exce

llenc

e in

Ch

ild a

nd F

amily

Wel

fare

Dr.

Barb

ara

Spea

rsD

avid

Mou

ld a

nd t

he S

econ

d St

rike

team

Dea

n W

ilson

and

Em

ma

Colv

in, M

onas

h U

nive

rsity

Mic

helle

Bur

rell,

Jane

Laz

zari

and

the

CHP

Team

Def

erm

ent s

tudy

par

tner

sD

ina

Gue

st, H

elen

Cla

rke,

Nic

ole

Koom

enG

ary

Shaw

, Dep

artm

ent o

f Edu

catio

n an

d Ea

rly

Child

hood

Dev

elop

men

tD

ustin

Fen

eley

Eden

Par

ris, C

AUS

Emm

a Bu

ckle

yEm

ma

Cash

en, V

icto

rian

Law

Ref

orm

Com

mis

sion

Erin

You

ngFr

ance

s Fo

rd, R

ural

Acc

ess

Prog

ram

Fron

tyar

d Yo

uth

Serv

ices

Gai

l McH

ardy

& P

aren

t Vic

toria

Gav

an T

hom

pson

SFY

S an

d th

e st

eerin

g gr

oup

of t

he V

icto

rian

Rura

l You

th S

ervi

ce

Hay

den

Rays

mith

and

Tru

dy W

ise, M

elbo

urne

Com

mun

ity

Foun

datio

nLo

uisa

Ellu

m, F

iona

Wau

gh a

nd t

he B

GK

LLEN

team

Hea

ther

Ingl

is, D

isabi

lity

Serv

ices

Com

mis

sion

Hug

h de

Kre

tser

and

the

Fede

ratio

n of

Com

mun

ity L

egal

Cen

tres

Indi

vidu

al A

dvoc

acy

Peer

Sup

port

Gro

upIn

ner

City

Reg

iona

l You

th A

ffai

rs N

etw

ork

Inne

r Ea

ster

n LL

ENCa

pita

l City

LLE

NLi

ve A

cces

s Re

fere

nce

Gro

up:

Kath

ryn

Kern

ohan

, Ale

xius

Pep

per

(City

of P

ort P

hilip

), Ta

sia K

arlis

(City

of M

elbo

urne

), Ja

ne T

reng

rove

(Art

s Ac

cess

) Ke

rryn

O’R

ourk

e, V

icH

ealth

Andr

ew Ja

ckom

os, D

epar

tmen

t of J

ustic

eKa

te G

illic

kKatiKrsevanandtheOfficeforYouthteam

Jam

es T

onso

nJe

rri N

elso

n an

d th

e te

am a

t the

Nor

th C

entr

al L

LEN

Joha

nna

Wyn

, Ani

Wei

ringa

and

the

Aus

tral

ian

Yout

h

Rese

arch

Cen

tre

team

Judi

th B

essa

nt, R

MIT

Uni

vers

ityJu

lie P

hilli

ps, D

isabi

lity

Disc

rimin

atio

n Le

gal S

ervi

ceJu

stin

Fin

igan

and

Geo

ff A

dset

t, Fi

nrea

Com

pute

rsKe

vin

Ston

e, V

ALID

Kim

Sta

dtm

iller

, Rut

h G

rove

s &

the

Whi

ttle

sea

Yout

h Co

mm

itmen

tKw

ik K

opy

Nor

th M

elbo

urne

Luca

s Ry

anLu

ke B

o’sh

erM

ario

n H

eale

and

VAS

SP

Mar

ie H

apke

, Ian

Ham

m a

nd G

eoff

Goo

k at

Abo

rigin

al

Affa

irs V

icto

riaM

ario

Fili

ntat

zis,

YD

AS v

olun

teer

Mar

k To

mne

y &

the

Dox

a Yo

uth

Foun

datio

nM

AVNationalDisabilityCoordinationOfficerProgram

Pa

ul K

otz,

Sm

all S

tudi

oPe

ter

New

ling

Plan

ning

You

r W

ay R

efer

ence

Gro

upPr

intm

ode

Rob

Ball,

YD

AS S

hort

s pr

oduc

erRo

byn

Broa

dben

t, VU

TRo

ger

Hol

dsw

orth

Fran

Lin

ardi

and

Vic

ki C

oope

r, Ci

ty o

f Whi

ttle

sea

Mel

bour

ne C

itym

issio

nSa

m W

allm

anSa

rah

Bart

on, F

ertil

e Fi

lms

Shan

e Ke

rose

c, B

ang

On

ITSh

aron

Fish

er, M

elbo

urne

City

mis

sion

St K

ilda

Yout

h Se

rvic

esSt

ella

You

ngTh

e Co

de o

f Eth

ical

Pra

ctic

e W

orki

ng G

roup

The

Hel

en M

acph

erso

n Sm

ith T

rust

The

YRIP

P st

eerin

g co

mm

ittee

, loc

al a

uspi

ce a

genc

ies

an

d pa

rtne

rsTr

acey

Car

son,

City

of H

obso

n’s

Bay

Troy

Mac

ris, S

prin

gval

e D

ande

nong

SFY

SYA

CVi

c Yo

uth

Refe

renc

e G

roup

YDAS

ste

erin

g co

mm

ittee

mem

bers

: Br

idie

Hud

son,

Jess

Eva

ns, L

uke

Nel

son,

Fio

na S

ande

rs, S

tuar

t M

inot

ti, T

hom

as B

anks

, Mill

y Bu

rrow

s, S

aman

tha

Pete

rson

, Liz

El

lis, H

anna

h Ph

ilips

, Mar

io F

ilint

atzi

s, A

riane

Gar

ner

Will

iam

s ,

May

sa A

bouz

eid,

Nth

abi S

enda

, Cha

rles

McD

onal

d,

VicS

RC S

tude

nt E

xecu

tive

Vict

oria

n Ab

orig

inal

Com

mun

ities

Vict

oria

Leg

al A

idVi

n N

oom

Yout

h Af

fairs

Uni

t, Vi

ctor

ia P

olic

eVI

YAC

mem

bers

VIYA

C Re

fere

nce

Gro

up m

embe

rsYo

uth

Colla

bora

tion

Part

ners

Yo

uth

Part

icip

atio

n W

orke

rs N

etw

ork

Incl

uded

in t

his

publ

icat

ion

are

imag

es t

aken

fro

m v

ario

us e

vent

s or

gani

sed

or f

acili

tate

d by

YA

CVi

c.

YAC

Vic

grat

eful

ly a

ckno

wle

dges

the

supp

ort g

iven

by

its m

embe

rs a

nd p

artic

ipan

ts o

f tho

se e

vent

s, in

clud

ing

thei

r

perm

issio

n fo

r YA

CVi

c to

use

any

ass

ocia

ted

imag

es. Y

ACVi

c gr

atef

ully

ack

now

ledg

es th

e fu

ndin

g su

ppor

t of t

he

OfficeforYouthwithintheDepartmentofPlanningandCommunityDevelopment.

VIYA

C ac

know

ledg

es a

ll El

ders

pas

t and

pre

sent

and

than

ks th

em fo

r the

har

d w

ork

they

hav

e do

ne fo

r fut

ure

gene

ratio

ns.

56

TH

AN

KS!

59