TUMUT SHIRE YOUTH COMMITMENT
quick update
A SHORT RUN DOWN ON CURRENT EVENTS, OR ITEMS OF INTEREST

15 MAY 2003

Tumut Youth Commitment has recently been successful in obtaining funding from the Blakeney Millar foundation to assist in the expansion of transition brokerage in the Tumut Shire. Blakeney Millar are a local philanthropic foundation who use a set amount of funding annually to assist worthy projects in Tumut. Their support is another strong indication of the commitment made by this community to assisting our young people.

Transition brokerage is one aspect of our strategic plan, but certainly not the only thing that we are working on. We have applied to ECEF to be one of the pilot projects for youth community connections. Our aim is to inspire, motivate and encourage youth to be responsible for decision making. We believe in training our future leaders, encouraging entrepreneurial activity and celebrating achievements will ultimately pay dividends for our community.

We are fortunate to have a great working relationship with local business, in particular Tumut Shire Council. They identified quite some time ago that they had a social responsibility and needed to look beyond rates, roads and garbage collection.

Gaye-Maree Duncan
rhvoced@dragnet.com.au

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TUMUT SHIRE YOUTH COMMITMENT
people

•  COMMITTEE / PARTICIPANTS [as at JAN 2002]

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TUMUT SHIRE YOUTH COMMITMENT
people

		Renata Zanetti chairperson, tumut shire youth commitment; & tumut high school I became involved in the Youth Commitment following the original Forum in Tumut in November 2000. I am passionate about making a difference and especially towards issues involving the youth. It is this passion that has lead me to become a member of the Tumut Shire Youth Council, the Student Representative Council and the Tumut Youth Commitment. I live in Batlow and am a year 12 student and captain of Tumut High School. Within the past few years I have been involved in a variety of programs and organisations, representing NSW / ACT in World Vision. I also had the amazing opportunity of attending a Federal Youth Session in Switzerland in October last year. It is my aspiration to study medicine following the completion of my HSC. I would also like to attend a National Youth Roundtable and continue my involvement in community development.
		Chris Adams tumut shire council I am Chris Adams and I have been General Manager at Tumut Shire Council since 1997. I am a civil engineer and prior to becoming the General Manager at Tumut Shire I was the Director of Technical Services. I believe that the youth are our future and we need to do everything we can to allow them to properly develop to their full potential. This is both for their own personal development but also for the future well-being of our towns as for too long our young people have had to leave our rural towns to gain opportunities. ^ top
		Janet Dobbie tumut shire council & tumut high school industry advisory group I have been working as the Corporate Planner and Human Resources Officer with Tumut Shire Council for 2 and a half years. But I have been involved in quite a few voluntary activities all of my adult life. One of these activities is working with high schools on their Vocational Education programs - being a great believer in prevention or intervention is always better than cures (which are rarely highly successful anyway). I am currently the Chairperson of the Tumut High School Industry Advisory Group and I have been the Tumut Youth Commitment's Mentor to the Chairperson, Renata Zanetti. My hopes are that we can really make the most of every precious dollar that comes into our shire for the provision of high quality, appropriate and efficient services to young people. ^ top
		Gaye-Maree Duncan tumut high school & riverina community college, gundagai My name is Gaye-Maree Duncan. I am the Vocational Education Coordinator at Tumut High School and Centre Manager Riverina Community College in Gundagai. I am also President of the Gundagai Neighbourhood Centre. I am involved with the Tumut Youth Commitment because I am passionate about providing youth with opportunities and options to improve their skills and not to become disengaged from their local community. ^ top
		Mark Grove riverina institute, tumut My name is Mark Grove. I am Head of Campus at the Riverina Institute in Tumut. I am also the Executive Officer of the Forest Industry Council and Chair of Tumut Region Developing Naturally Inc. - the local development corporation. I am interested in participating in the Youth Commitment Forum because TAFE NSW has many strategies to support youth with training and education. As a local resident with a young family, I also have a personal interest in maximising the educational, cultural, sporting and social opportunities for young people in our community. ^ top
		Sue Thatcher tumut shire council & youth council, tumut My name is Sue Thatcher and I work at Tumut Shire Council as the General Manager's Personal Assistant. As part of my work I assist the Youth Council to function as a Committee of Council. I also voluntarily assist the Youth Council with the organisation and supervision of events on my own time. It is through my work with the Youth Council that I became involved with the Youth Commitment project. I thoroughly enjoy working with the young people in the Youth Council and generally getting to know so many young people when supervising events. I would like to be able to help the young people who are "falling through the net" so that they can be gainfully employed locally. ^ top

participants at the initial forum involved in discussion (left and below)

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TUMUT SHIRE YOUTH COMMITMENT
reports and resources

• P R O G R E S S   R E P O R T

December 2001

Initial forum held in November 2000. Around 50 people attended this including representatives from schools, government departments, council, and young people. Around 15 of those present stated that they wanted to have ongoing involvement in progressing the Youth Commitment. Tumut Shire Council's General Manger gave an assurance that Council was prepared to provide ongoing support to the Youth Commitment by encouraging staff participation and through offering other services such as administrative support.

Follow up meetings were held in December 2000, and roughly every other month with varying levels of participation and a high lack of clarity about what the group was setting out to do. Three "working groups" had been set up in December, each with its own coordinator. But none of these has met as they did not have any ideas about they (the working groups) were aiming to achieve, or what the current situation was.

Regular contact is maintained via the email group and because we live in a small community and cross paths with one another. (For instance, I am the HR officer at the Council. I come into contact with the employment agencies on a regular basis.)

In the meantime, the sponsors (Dusseldorp Skills Forum and the ECEF) provided guidance, a clearer structure for progressing the Youth Commitment. Measures including formalising a Memorandum of Understanding and then applying to undertake an environmental scan. Again there was confusion. What was thought to be a draft for comment, was actually what the sponsors expected groups to sign off against. This was eventually sorted out.

Then we tried to engage someone to carry out the environmental scan. Our first choice was interested but going overseas. Our second choice lost computer and internet capabilities for several weeks (unbeknown to us). By the time we re-established contact, he was unavailable but our preferred choice had returned from her trip abroad. There was much to-ing and fro-ing, negotiating terms and conditions, and establishing the scope of the investigations. Finally, we have signed someone and she is very enthusiastic and incredibly thorough, so we have high expectations about the content and how meaningful it will be.

We have put in an Expression of Interest to the Federal Government for funding under the Innovative and Collaborative Youth Servicing Pilot Program. With the Federal Election we have not yet had word but we are hopeful that this will be our first major step forward. The environmental scan will be completed and presented to our group in early February 2002 and we will be available for inclusion if we go to a full submission for this project. We have decided that if we are unsuccessful, we will seek other opportunities for funding the project.

We have investigated the possibility of hosting a Jobs Expo this year. We decided that further research was required and we expect to support the conduct of this event next year to service all young people who are seeking employment (whether at school, TAFE, unemployed or whatever) from across the shire and beyond.

To date, apart from the support and funding through Dusseldorp Skills Forum and the ECEF we have not had any other funding. We have had a lot of support though.

Janet Dobbie
email: jdobbie@tumut.nsw.gov.au

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TUMUT SHIRE YOUTH COMMITMENT
reports and resources

• N E W S P A P E R   A R T I C L E

TUMUT AND ADELONG TIMES
Friday 1 December 2001

Headline:
Tumut Shire Youth Commitment continues to gain momentum

As the direct result of the recent forum organised by Tumut High School's Industry Advisory Group Inc. a follow up meeting has seen the formation of a committee to continue the development of a Tumut Shire Youth Commitment.

A meeting held at the Tumut Council office saw General Manager, Chris Adams welcome an impressive group of participants including representatives from local and state Government departments, education, industry, welfare groups, the National Youth Commitment Committee, parents, employment agencies and younger members of the community.

Photo: Participants at the follow up Tumut Shire Youth Commitment meeting included Jim McAlpine, Phil Shirt, Fran Davey, Gaye Duncan, Kerry Worldon, Janet Dobbie and Angela Hogan.

As a basis for the direction of the Tumut Shire Youth Commitment at this stage, it was noted that, "Young people in the Riverina Highlands will have access to jobs, education, training and support services that help them achieve their goals in life."

The group decided that an environmental scan was needed as a priority to enable the development of co-ordination and improved services to be based on factual data (both qualitative and quantitative) allowing measurement over time.

Data would be collected through schools, a youth focus group/forum, and government departments such as Health, DOCS, Premier's Department etc.

Instrumental in the gathering and compilation of information will be the focus group of Angela Hogan, Sue Thatcher, Fran Davey, Kate Butler and Phil Shirt (convenor and contact person for the group).

Photo: Community Youth Development Projects Officer Michael Browne with Kate Butler a member of the Premier's Department for Drugs and Community Action Strategies and Anna Cutler a member of the National Youth Commitment committee.

A forum will be organised by a sub committee of the group focusing on youth participation. As well, a map of services currently available across the Riverina Highlands will be developed, indicating services available to young people noting these services specifically for them so that a gap analysis can be undertaken.

The Tumut Shire Youth Commitment will see a focus on the involvement of young people within the proejct, while also drawing on community participation.

An important aspect of the success of the Youth Commitment is the development of a community partnership and improving education all round which will be addressed by Kerry Worldon, Gaye Duncan and Janet Dobbie.

Positions on the committee were formulated for the next 6 months with the Chairperson's position to be held by a student within the Tumut Shire.

Other positions filled for the six months till June 2001 were, Vice Chairperson/Mentor Janet Dobbie, note taker, Sue Thatcher, E-group co-ordinator Gaye Duncan, Involvement co-ordinator Angela Hogan, Mapping co-ordinator Phil Shirt and Community Partnerships co-ordinator Kerry Worldon.

Photo: Tumut Shire General Manager, Chris Adams and Sue Thatcher who is Tumut Shire Council Officer on the Youth Council at Wednesday's meeting.

The Tumut Shire Youth Commitment program is an exciting and innovative scheme bringing many valuable resources together while the emphasis is clearly directed on youth, and youth issues.

The program provides the vehicle for the Tumut Shire to support its youth and for the wider community and youth themselves to accept some responsibility for their future.

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TUMUT SHIRE YOUTH COMMITMENT
reports and resources

• N E W S P A P E R   A R T I C L E

TUMUT AND ADELONG TIMES

Headline:
Tumut Shire's Youth Commitment Moving Ahead

An Environmental Scan was prepared by Ms Sharon Stacy which aimed at profiling the learning and work situation of the youth in Tumut Shire from the ages of 15-19 years of age.

Ms Sharon Stacy presented her report on the Environmental Scan she undertook covering schools and youth in the Tumut Shire which included an overview of the group from Year 6 in 1991 through to 2001.

Ms Stacy indicated the difficulties associated with obtaining the information and noted the brief was based on what she had been able to access.

From the information collated, a strategic plan will be developed in order to outline the furture direction of the Tumut Shire Youth Commitment.

Following the presentation of the results of the Environmental Scan three working groups were formed to address specific areas for the future success of Youth Commitment in the Tumut Shire.

• Information Collection and Management - members of this group include Peter Browne, Mark Grove and Gaye Duncan
  
  
• Developing a Vision - the responsibility of the Tumut Youth Council and other young people.
  
  
• Support - Janet Dobbie will develop a director of support organisations such as Employment National, Mission Australia, Riverina Community College and Centrelink, along with the Tumut High School Career/Voc Ed unit.

The aim of the program is to provide young people with a smooth, supported and informed transition from school to work taking into account all aspects of their welfare and career choices.

As part of the overall program, all students are 'tracked' in order to obtain an overview of youth movement in relation to education, employment and unemployment.