By TANIA PHILLIPS
THE new Tweed Shire Council Youth Strategy and Action plan is attracting a lot of attention, taking out a major state award.
The program, Speak Out, has taken out an award for Planning Excellence in the Planning for Children and Young People category of the Planning Institute of Australia’s recent NSW Excellence Awards.
The council and consultants Cred Community Planning were jointly recognised for the extensive engagement campaign conducted to help create the youth strategy.
“All involved should be congratulated for successfully tailoring engagement around young people and recognising the value this process has in creating improved solutions for our cities and towns,” according to the judges’ citation.
“This project was specifically targeted to encourage involvement of young people in the development of the strategy and was based on the concepts of empowerment, partnership and capacity building.”
The council’s community development officer – youth Sylvia Roylance said the council and Cred had worked closely together during a lengthy and diverse engagement campaign to identify the things that were important to young people in the Tweed and what they would like to see changed.
Forums with several schools, video vox pops by a young film crew, online forums and surveys and a competition for photographs and videos were among several engagement activities conducted in 2012 and 2013.
The award is sponsored by the NSW Office of Children and Young People and was presented at the ceremony by the Acting Commissioner for Children and Young People, Kerryn Boland.
Cred representative Sarah Reilly, who received the award, said it was tremendous endorsement of the consultation and high level of community input which helped formulate the strategy and had already helped to secure a $500,000 Federal Government grant to upgrade Knox Park.
The strategy, adopted at the November council meeting, will guide council policy and activities involving youth for the next four years, to help make the Tweed a great place to be a young person.
The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) is the peak body representing professionals involved in planning Australian cities, towns and regions. PIA NSW plays key roles in promoting and supporting the planning profession in NSW and advocating key planning and public policy issues.
