By SHANNON POWER
SIX young leaders from Hobsons Bay are doing the community proud at this year’s Youth Parliament.
Youth Parliament is a youth empowerment program run by the Victorian YMCA in partnership with the Victorian Government.
The program is completed by 20 teams of six participants, aged 16 – 25, and provides a gauge of young people’s opinions to Victorian MPs.
Jack Fryer and Sam Martin are two of the Hobsons Bay delegation.
Mr Fryer found out about Youth Parliament from his participation in the council’s Future Leaders program.
Mr Martin was asked to participate in a more unconventional way.
“I was walking in a hallway one day and one of the teachers calls out my name and says ’hey, you do public speaking, you would enjoy this’,” Mr Martin said.
Over the course of the week, teams work on mock legislation and debate their ideas, then the passed bills go on to be distributed to the relevant MPs.
Both young men are surprised by how passionate people can be when they’re arguing for a cause.
“It gives us such a great way to express where we live and what it’s like and how we want to change it, it’s just really empowering … it makes you feel good about being able to do really good things in society,” Mr Martin said.
Cain Hill from the YMCA said the delegation was doing a great job.
“The Hobsons Bay team is doing extraordinarily well in the Chambers of Parliament, with each member answering the call to represent the bigger message,” Mr Hill said.
