By Dominique Tassell
The Southern Downs Youth Council Meeting minutes were noted at the last Southern Downs Regional Council (SDRC) meeting, giving an insight into the concerns of the youth in our region.
The Youth Council meeting was held on 26 August at the Warwick Town Hall.
Trevor Horsnell and Rachel Whieldon from Stanthorpe Therapeutic Arts and Recovery Space (STARS) presented the details of a proposed Youth Hub called “The Loading Dock” in Stanthorpe to the Youth Council.
The members present stated that the most important workshops or programs to them were on how to support themselves or friends going through a tough time, mental health, and self-care, or dealing with exam stress.
They also stated that the skill sets they would most like to learn were being more organised and study focused, survival cooking skills, and fitness or martial arts.
The support they thought they and their peers needed most was around mental health support, creative therapies, and being able to ‘drop in’ and talk to someone at any time.
The Youth Council voted that important things for those working at the Youth Hub to know about include social media pressures, being able to provide support with school, and knowing about art, music, and creative arts.
They also voted it was important for staff to be non-judgemental, happy, open, and inclusive.
They stated that the things that might prevent young people from engaging with the space were the friendliness of workers, atmosphere and ‘vibe’, and the location, cost, and opening hours.
Sue Organ then provided an update to the students on the progress of the Granite Belt Beats, Bites, Bounce events, being held at the Stanthorpe Showgrounds on Saturday 6 November 2021 from 11am to 4pm.
There was discussion around whether the students are able to volunteer at the event.
At a previous Youth Council Meeting the students stated that one of their priorities was improving mental and physical health.
To action this, they decided that they should engage with headspace Warwick and The Loading Dock Stanthorpe to see if they can run a creative art class as the end of term for students to attend.
This will help to learn if they like being in the space and enjoy the classes being offered.
It may also help students reset for the next term of school and increase use of the facility in the future.
They also decided that to improve physical health, Council will engage with Principals and school networks to discuss cross engagement with schools.
They will also engage with sporting agencies to work through school networks to increase participation with “come and try” sports open days.
Students then discussed options for a proposed trivia night.
Students asked whether they could run a combined trivia night, and whether it could incorporate Zoom so more people could be involved.
The students agreed they would like future trivia events to be themed.
This then raised the question of whether these events could be run in conjunction with other events, such as during Youth Week, Mental Health Week, or NAIDOC week.
The Youth Council then discussed recycling plastics and other environmental issues.
They suggested that SDRC could make it clearer what goes in each bin by making the whole bin coloured.
They also stated that there could be composting bins at waste facilities so people can then go out the tip, place their food scraps in relevant areas, and also pick up composted matter
The Mayor reported to the Youth Council that SDRC is currently running an experiment at one of the waste facilities.
Microbes have been placed in one pile of waste and not in the other.
At this time the mound with microbes is slowly seeing the waste reduced.
The Youth Council raised the possibility of identifying more green space within the region.
The Mayor explained that when Council’s Planning Scheme is open to public consultation, that he would encourage all students to have their say, in particular about eco-tourism.
