Isolated Youth at Risk

(left to right) Stepan Kerkyasharian, Chair CRC, Jennifer Mason, Director-General, Department of Community Services and Barbara Perry, Minister for Juvenile Justice, Minister for Western Sydney and Minister Assisting the Premier on Citizenship at the 2007 CRC Report launch

Young people in our society are at risk of being influenced by other people's agendas, according to the Chair of the Community Relations Commission For a multicultural NSW, Stepan Kerkyasharian.

"The risk is particularly high if they live in a community which is closed off or isolated from the mainstream by geographical, social and class, cultural, language or religious barriers" he says.

Mr Kerkyasharian's observation is contained in the annual report to Parliament on community relations in NSW, prepared by the CRC, under the title Youth Diversity and Harmony - shaping our future.

The report was launched today in Parliament House by the Minister for Juvenile Justice, Minister for Western Sydney and Minister Assisting the Premier on Citizenship, Barbara Perry.

Writing in the foreword to the report, Mr Kerkyasharian said: "An important strategy in meeting this risk is to give young people every opportunity to meet, to interact and communicate, to get to know each other and to exchange ideas".

He said many of the initiatives outlined in the report had employed this vital strategy.

" The Community Relations Commission has been particularly active in assisting in bringing young people together, not only by helping with discrete and specific programs like Beach Bonanza, the Summer Youth Festival and the youth input into the Talkback theatre production but also through its Youth Leaders' Day which was first introduced in 2006 to complete the annual Community Relations Symposium.

"Young Australians, in general, are generous, open and willing to accept others for what they are - far more so, it seems, than many of their elders. Coupled with this they are generally articulate, aware of what is happening about them (especially about the bigger issues) and are naturally enthusiastic and energetic.

"Their openness to ideas, while refreshing, also contains an element of risk - particularly the risk of being influenced by other people's agendas", Mr Kerkyasharian said.

The Community Relations Commission continues to work with the Multicultural Youth Network (MYN), which it established in 2005 as a platform for young people from diverse backgrounds to directly voice issues of concern to them. The network is made up of youth leaders dedicated to building a harmonious, multicultural Australia.