What NSW Northern Rivers social priorities are in 2010 for local community services

From Northern Rivers Social Priorities 2010 Report:

In early 2010 Northern Rivers Social Development Council (NRSDC) conducted a survey amongst the regions’ community service providers to gauge their views on social priorities. The results from the survey will be used to inform NRSDC in its advocacy role. It will also stand as a resource for other community services to gain an insight into the key social issues faced by the Northern Rivers community and community service system.

Since 2001, initially the Northern Rivers Interagency and now NRSDC have conducted research, consultations and surveys with service providers. The aim has been to identify common social priorities across the region, flag new issues as they arise and monitor the state of those priorities.

Responses from community services of the Northern Rivers to the 2010 Social Priorities survey has revealed that the region’s social priorities, as identified in 2002 and revisited in 2006 remain hot issues in the community.

Data from the survey may be considered in different ways. An indication of what responding services had the strongest feelings about can be found by looking at which issues had the most respondents rating them as 9 out of 9 ie the highest level of concern.

Ranking of the social priorities is as follows on a scale of 1 to 9:

1. Youth 7.72
   
2. Complex needs 7.64
   
3. Transport 7.58
   
4. Housing 7.08
   
5. Ageing 6.92
   
6. Community based management 6.52

Yamba cousins selected for Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October

Cousins Cameron Pilley and Donna Urquhart have been selected in the Australian squash team that will compete at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Pilley, aged 27, and Urquhart, aged 23, are local products who started their squash experiences at the Yamba Squash Centre.

According to Squash Info Pilley's current ranking in world men's squash is 16th whilst Urquhart's ranking in women's squash is 18th.

Other members of the 2010 Australian Commonwealth Games squash team are:

Stewart Boswell 31 ACT
Ryan Cuskelly 22 NSW
Aaron Frankcomb 25 Tas
David Palmer 34 NSW
Kasey Brown 24 NSW
Lisa Camilleri 27 Qld
Melody Francis 21 Vic
Amelia Pittock 27 Vic

To further emphasise the success of squash on the NSW north coast it should be noted that Ryan Cuskelly is from Evans Head and Kasey Brown is from Taree.

Is the Australian Youth Forum website a total failure?

On 2 October 2008 with much fanfare the Rudd Government and the Federal Minister for Youth, Kate Ellis, launched the Australian Youth Forum and associated website.

The website is an online forum for, well, for youth and the young have responded dramatically according to government:

There has been such a great response to the initial topics and some really good suggestions have been made.

Here is how this "great response" played out.
It's first discussion topic Bullying the forum attracted 40 comments over 59 days, as of the morning of 12 December and not all of these were from young people.
The second discussion topic Body Image is doing a little better with 45 comments in 59 days.
There is no third, fourth or fifth topic listed on the website.

Of course there are slightly more people reading this site, with Bullying posts receiving 181 votes and Body Image 142 votes.

However there is no way of knowing if it was the young actually reading and voting.
As a Baby Boomer my anonymous vote was happily registered by the online forum.
As would be the vote of any ministerial staffer.

Now I know that in its $8 million funding announcement government also included funding for the non-government Australian Youth Affairs Coalition and some future local conferences, but this still represents as lot of money for 85 short opinion posts on a specially created website.
Each post keystroke probably represented hundreds of dollars.

With so many of Australia's two million-odd young people able to access the Internet, this poor showing over two months gives pause for thought.
Wasn't the Youth Forum website a product of that Rudd brain fever, the 2020 Summit?

Poznan: Tipping my hat to the Australian youth delegation and their international counterparts

With around one hundred and eighty-seven countries represented at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Poland this week predictably at loggerheads about the details on how to proceed to combat the worst effects of climate change through an enduring treaty, I take some comfort from the voice of youth.
It might not be a globally inclusive voice and I suspect that in many respects it is a somewhat elitist voice (and I can't help nostalgically thinking they aren't a patch on the 60s mob), but this a young voice speaking loudly and clearly to the rest of the world - p#ss or get off the pot!
I just hope that Rudders and Co are really listening and Penny Wong formally embraces this perspective rather than just paying lipservice to it at the Ministerial Roundtable yesterday.

Crikey reports:

20 young Australians have come to Poznan, Poland for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change as part of the Australian Youth Delegation. Mostly self funded, we have travelled here to make sure the youth voice is heard on climate change and to ensure that world leaders step up and stop dangerous climate change. This delegation has been hosted by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), a coalition of over 20 youth organisations working on climate change issues around Australia....

The Australian Youth Delegates at the United Nations conference are calling on the government to set emission reduction targets of over 40% by 2020 to safeguard their future and the future of Pacific Islands...

A group of young people from over 50 countries attending the UN Climate Negotiations in Poland have achieved an extraordinary feat today: negotiating an international statement based on the "survival principle" and getting senior negotiators to sign their countries up to it.

Over 80 countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Costa Rica, Tuvalu and Bangladesh, as well as leading experts on climate change including Australia's Tim Flannery, Sir Nicolas Stern and Nobel prize winner Dr. Rajendra Pachauri have signed on to the statement that a global climate change agreement must "safeguard the survival of all countries and peoples".

For a conference that has otherwise been a bland non-event, this statement has resonated widely with delegates. Many nations have placed a "survival" placard handed out by the youth delegates over their country's name placards.

These young delegates had joined adult national representatives at the Poznań conference on Thursday to hear the UN Secretary-General outline its objectives:

First is a workplan for next year's negotiations. I am glad that an agreement has already been achieved. Second, you need to sketch out the critical elements of a long-term vision. We need a basic framework for cooperative action starting today, not in 2012. Within this framework, industrialized countries must set ambitious long-term goals, coupled with midterm emission reduction targets.

Developing countries need to limit the growth of their emissions as well. To do so they will need robust financial and technological support -- not just promises, but tangible results. Adaptation will be key, including risk reduction and management. Change must be integrated with strategies for development and poverty alleviation. One without the other means failure for both. The world's poorest should not suffer first and worst from a problem they did least to create.

Third, we must recommit ourselves to the urgency of our cause. This requires leadership -- your leadership. Yes, the economic crisis is serious. Yet when it comes to climate change, the stakes are even far higher. The climate crisis affects our potential prosperity and our peoples' lives, both now and far into the future.

Message to Political Leaders: Consider Our Future
It's Getting Hot In Here, DC - 8 Dec 2008
In every possible way we, as an International Youth Delegation representing over 50 nations, are trying to make the case that the time is running out to ...

Alta. oilsands criticized at UN summit
Canada.com, Canada - 23 hours ago
A Canadian youth delegation attending the UN climate-change conference in Poznan, Poland, set up a photo display, scrutinizing Alberta's environmental ...

Poznań: The Maturing of the Youth Contingent
Worldwatch Institute, DC - 10 hours ago
Answer: they are both the voice of the international youth delegation, an increasingly vocal, organized, and perhaps bureaucratized presence at the ongoing ...

The Climate Crisis Waits for No One
Solomon Times Online, Solomon Islands - 10 Dec 2008
Leah Wickham, a Greenpeace volunteer from Fiji, who is part of a youth delegation to Poznan, said countries like Australia had not demonstrated political ...

The thrills and spills of carbon-reduced travel
The Age, Australia - 5 Dec 2008
Australian Youth Delegation overland team Nic Seton, 22, of the Gold Coast, Anna Keenan, 23 of Brisbane, Jack Fuller, 23 of Melbourne, Oliver Cashman, ...

NSW North Coast picks up 2008 National Local Government Awards

There are 10 award categories in the National Local Government Awards which are held annually.
This week it was announced that councils on the NSW North Coast had received two major awards and two commendations in 2008:


Innovation in Regional Development - commendations -
Nambucca Shire Council, NSW - Collaborating industry and Local GovernmentClarence Valley Council, NSW - Clarence Edge


Youth Engagement - winner -
Clarence Valley Council, NSW - Clarence Valley Youth Summer Events Program


Natural Resource Management - winner -
Clarence Valley Council, NSW - The Clarence Floodplain Project - Reviving Floodplain Watercourses and Wetlands

Well done to the councils and staff involved.

Shout Out youth mag revamped

Shout Out the local free youth magazine has been revamped. Its 34 page March 2008 issue is glossy and tightly packed with news and views, as well as great surfing pics.

This mag is a Clarence Valley Arts project funded by the NSW Government through the area assistance scheme.

The Shout Out team are young, bright and cluey and their mag is well worth a look to see what's on and what's up.

If you want to find out what's on for the young on the NSW North Coast, grab a copy of the mag.
Alternatively contact the team at:
cvyouthmag@yahoo.com.au or go to MySpace here.

Remember that the Youth Week 2008 festival is at Maclean Showground on 5 April 2008.
It will have live music, DJs, 4-way bungee, circus workshop, jewellery making, and great food stalls.
Sounds like a great day.