What's the Answer? - Create

Including the “voice” of young people with a care experienceCREATE Foundation has established a reputation for empowering young people through its variousprograms (eg. Create Your Future) but, especially, through our National Youth Advisory Council(NYAC) and Youth Advisory Group (YAG) in each state and territory, to advocate effectively toenhance the care experience for children and young people.NYAC and YAG’s advocacy has been very strong in the area of transitioning from out-of-home care toindependence, given CREATE’s recent research work in transitioning from care which found thatapproximately 65% of young people transition form care without a plan (McDowall, 2009:63) andresulted in the What’s the Plan? Campaign targeting young people aged 15-18 years with the specificobjective of increasing the number who participate in the development of their Leaving Care Plan.To ensure that young people with a care experience were given the opportunity to have their voicesheard and their opinions included in the draft Work Plan for the national priority Transitioning toindependence, CREATE Foundation was funded by FaHCSIA to undertake the activity National YouthAdvisory Council input into a national strategy to improve Transitioning to Independence from Out ofHome Care.The activity required that CREATE facilitate contributions from members of the National YouthAdvisory Council (NYAC) and other young people, representative of the diverse range of needs of thisgroup, in:• the development of a strategy to identify key priorities and practical solutions in assisting youngpeople transitioning out of care to gain full independence; and• support the NFIWG Transitioning to Independence Sub-Working Group to provide advice anddirection on initiatives that will lead to better social and economic outcomes for young people.The CREATE ActivityTo provide young people’s input into the draft Work Plan for transitioning to independence in orderto support the work of the NFIWG Transitioning to Independence Sub-Working Group, CREATEdetermined that the activity would involve the capture of the views of young people with a careexperience about the process of transitioning from out-of-home care to independence by conductinga series of consultations.As CREATE has captured already the “voices” of 678 young people relating to issues associated withtransitioning from out-of-home care to independence using three (3) surveys in two (2) recent andcurrent research projects 3 , this activity would comprise:• Australia-wide consultations with each State and Territory’s Youth Advisory Group (YAG) based onkey themes identified in recent CREATE Report Cards and other published research. Thesediscussions focused on confirming that the issues raised were of current concern, exploring thepositive aspects of a young person’s transition, articulating the barriers which mitigate againsttransitioning successfully, and investigating the availability and appropriateness of supportservices.• A one-day NYAC Forum in which delegates identified and discussed actions and practical solutionsrelating to the key issues raised by the young people in addition to those outlined in the FaHCSIAdiscussion paper for the three-phased approach of transitioning to independence.3