Youth-led Resilience after Lockdown aims to empower young people to design, develop and implement activities to support other young people in the event of a future lockdown or any other emergency.

Strategies will draw from young people’s (12 – 17) experience of COVID-19 and consider what would have helped them strengthen their resilience, both should subsequent lockdowns occur, or any other emergency. Through a series of co-design workshops, young people will review their own resilience against resilience pillars to better prevent, prepare, respond, and recover in the case of an emergency.

These includes:

• wellbeing
• social connection
• learning outcomes.

This project will take place in term 1 and 2 2021 and is linked closely with the following strategic documents:

• South Australian Youth Action Plan
• Better Together SA Youth Engagement Guide
• Australia’s National Strategy for Disaster Resilience
• Local Government Emergency Management Framework

Project Achievements

The project succeeded in empowering 16 young people to be part of the project's Youth Leadership Group (YLG) who designed, developed and implemented  activities to support other young people in the event of a future lockdown or any other
emergency.

The Sixteen SRC Wellbeing Ambassadors from Plympton International College committed to being on the project YLG. They participated in a series of workshops and working group meetings to communicate their experience of COVID, the strengths and challenges for young people, brainstormed and prioritised resilience-building activities and formed working groups to design, develop and implement the activities.

Members of the YLG took on a leadership role within their school community by surveying students, promoting and mobilising students to attend the events, writing articles for the school newsletter and social media and presenting at the school assembly. Further roles they engaged in included: designing logos and branding for their events, assisting with setting up and pack up, inviting and promoting events across the community, speaking at each event, engaging in community conversations while handing out youth service information in the form of give away bags. All decisions for the events were made by young people.

The YLG worked alongside the council to create activities as part of the Winter School Holiday Program. Events included: 'Screeneries' a movie marathon, 'Bouncing Back' a Community Fun Fair at AFL Max and 'Geoexplore: Resilience in your local area' a Geocache Scavenger Hunt across the council area that connected young people to services available. All activities included links to information and resources that support young people in West Torrens incl: mental and sexual health, employment and community connection.

The YLG participated in 4 workshops led by Red Cross as well as a further three working group meetings led by the council. In these forums, young people discussed the meaning of resilience, what were the strengths and gaps in the community and what activities could support young people to strengthen their resilience.

It is estimated that a total of 518 young people was involved in this project. This includes students engaged as at Plympton International College and through three youth-led school holiday activities.

Project outcomes

Outcome 1: Improve individual/community social and emotional wellbeing; and

Outcome 3: Reduce social isolation and increase the participation of priority groups in the local community

The YLG identified that social connection and reducing social isolation was a significant contributor to strengthening the resilience of young people and as such the proposal for them to contribute to the council's school holiday program was accepted. The YLG included representatives from across the CALD community including students from Ethiopia, the Philippines, India and Malaysia and as such the events were promoted significantly throughout their own networks as well as the school community. The attendance of young people at each event supported this approach and as such a diverse range of young people attended.

Events included: 'Screeneries' a movie marathon, 'Bouncing Back' a Community Fun Fair at AFL Max and 'Geoexplore: Resilience in your local area' a Geocache Scavenger Hunt across the council area that connected young people to services available. All activities included links to information and resources that support young people in Adelaide's western region with social and emotional wellbeing and resilience. Services included mental and sexual health, employment, legal services, education, homelessness and sports and community connection.  

In addition, 82% of the YLG reported an increase in their social and emotional wellbeing as a result of being part of the project, as well as increased knowledge on resilience building.

Outcome 4 - Improve digital inclusion as a tool to create social inclusion by facilitating digital access, digital literacy and digital enablement

The Geoexplore activity strengthened digital inclusion as this activity required participants to use an online map and follow online clues to find items in real-life locations.
It facilitated digital access by providing an introduction to Geocaching which required the use of a GPS-enabled device and encouraged families across ages to get involved and work together to complete the activity. In addition feedback from young people about the activity showed that many young people met one another at some of the Geocache locations and that new friendships were formed as a result.

In total, 27 young people fully completed this online self-directed activity which required travelling to 9 locations across the City of West Torrens.

Evaluation

A baseline for measurement and evaluation purposes was created at the commencement of the project through a paper-based survey completed by the YLG.

A subsequent survey was completed at the completion of the project by the YLG and results are published in the evaluation report.

A further survey was completed by attendees at each event of which members of the YLG conducted.

Immediate

• 82% participants self-reported an increased knowledge on resilience building.
• 82% participants self-reported an increase in their social and emotional wellbeing as a result of being part of the project.
• 82% participants self-reported an increase in confidence in sharing knowledge and information in regards to emergency resilience.
• All 16 leadership group participants self-reported that they were made to feel welcome.
• 27 young people completed the GeoExplore activity.
• 86% of attendees at youth-led activities agreed that the events increased community resilience.

Short term

• A number of initiatives were identified by the YLG as a result of the project after consultation with their peers. They will be rolled out as part of the Council's school holiday and after school programming as appropriate.
• Connection has been maintained with the SRC Wellbeing Ambassadors at Plympton International College, many of whom made up the Youth Leadership Group. A council local infrastructure project is planned which will work with this group.
• The NAPCAN 'Love Bites' Respectful Relationships program is now being rolled out to Plympton International College as a result of the connections made with the Youth Leadership Group and their supervising teacher.
• Immanuel Primary School's leadership and students found out about this project and liked its model for engagement. It has been agreed that council will collaborate with this school on a project currently being planned.
• The GeoExplore Geocache activity in the school holiday program, in particular, has introduced a new cohort of young people to the school holiday program, by people who have not traditionally been able to access the program. To retain this cohort more Geocache activities are planned for the school holiday program in the coming summer holidays.

Long term

• Design and delivery of activities within the winter school holiday program by the youth leadership group was one of the most successful aspects of the program, and 90% of youth-led activity attendees indicated they would be keen to attend future activities such as the activities delivered. This project has provided a model for council's youth planning and engagement going forward, and this model will continue to be utilised for the foreseeable future.

Ongoing Learning and collaborations

The main program that will incorporate the learnings of this project ongoing is the City of West Torrens school holiday program "Get with the Program".

This project has provided an excellent model for youth engagement by having young people involved in the design and delivery of the school holiday program. This model is being continued with Immanuel Primary school as the next school collaboration and will likely be rolled out to other schools within the City of West Torrens.

An ongoing partnership with Plympton International College's SRC Wellbeing Ambassadors has been maintained and has already led to the establishment of future projects such as:

• An outdoor play equipment for teen girls local infrastructure community consultation project.
• A project is already in progress - The Love Bites Respectful Relationships program is now being rolled out to Plympton International College as a result of the connections made with the school.

An ongoing relationship has been made with the Australian Council for Children and the Media who donated materials for the Screeneries Movie Marathon. Their organisation reached out when they found out about the project, and it was discovered they are based very close to the City of West Torrens. Their expertise will be utilised on future Council projects such as in the digital literacy programs run by the West Torrens Library Service.

This project has received funding from the Department of Human Services Youth-led COVID-19 Recovery Grants and administered by the Local Government Association of South Australia.

Project images