5 STRUGGLES OF REGIONAL LIFE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

We had a young person from a regional community come in and do PLP work experience. We asked him to write a story about an issue that affects his life. Here's his story!

**Ideas, words and memes in this piece were created by Matt, a student on PLP Work Experience at YACSA**

---

There are many good things about being a young person in a regional area such as the beautiful scenery, the friendly community, the amazing wildlife, the peaceful environment and the sense of security.

But here are five struggles that young people can face when living in a regional community.

1. ENTERTAINMENT IS HARD TO COME BY IN REGIONAL COMMUNITIES

This makes it difficult to have fun in your spare time. The few places of entertainment are usually in the more populated areas meaning that fun trips require a lot of preparation and planning.

Not to mention that if you are young and don’t have your license and your parents aren’t willing to drive you anywhere, there is no public transport outside of school.

This sucks because you can’t just decide to go out and explore.

2. SHOPPING IS A LARGE INCONVENIENCE

Whether it's going to a supermarket to get household supplies, or groceries, or going shopping for fashion - it's extremely difficult to buy things on short notice. And sometimes the shops don’t even have the things that you need.

Shopping in regional areas is definitely challenging.

3. LACK OF POPULATION!

This means lack of establishments. This also makes it difficult because the small population in regional areas still require jobs - but the the demand for jobs is incredibly high.

With no jobs for these people to go to, it makes living really hard - driving many people to leave regional areas to find jobs.

But this also means it's important to have the right connections. It's all about "who you know".

 

4. RUMOURS. ARE. EVERYWHERE.

In regional areas rumours and secrets spread really quickly due the smaller populations, so you always have to be careful what you say and who to.

 

5. NOTHING IS 24 HOUR!

People on the mainland won't understand this, but if you don't make it to the shops in time - you go starving because there's no servo and no Uber Eats. There's nothing. 

---

What are your opinions on regional living? Anything I missed? Anything you don’t agree with me on?

**Note from YACSA - if you live in a regional or rural area, click the link below and tell us what other struggles exist. We might even add them to this story!**

CHANGE IS HERE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITY

This article was written and developed by Ellen Fraser-Barbour, along with Julia Farr Youth (JFY). Ellen is a young person living with a disability, and JFY is an advisory group of young adults living with disability aged 18 to 30. For more info about JFY, or to get in touch with them, click here.

---

INTRO – YOUNG PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITY

Young people living with disability have the same aspirations as other young people around Australia. Friendships, high school, getting into work or study, moving out of home, getting a drivers licence, and trying new things; it’s a very exciting time.  But it can also be a tricky time for teenagers and young adults, with transitioning to adult supports and services which historically meant limited access to services and less choice.   Now things are changing with the federal roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) - a scheme that is all about choice and control. 

WHAT IS THE NDIS?

This new scheme will allow people living with disability to access individualised funding suited to their individual aspirations and life goals. This gives people living with disability more flexibility about what they want to do with their lives and allows them to decide what kind of supports they need to achieve their goals.

First a person with disability must apply for the NDIS.  Once this has been approved, then an NDIS planner will call to organise a meeting to talk about the person’s goals, needs and supports.  This meeting may take place over the phone or at a local National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) office.

After the NDIS Planner has met with the person, they will then decide on what supports are needed and how much funding is required.  There are three support budgets the NDIS funding will cover:

1. Core supports,
2. Capital, or
3. Capacity building.

Each of these budgets will allow people to spend on different types of supports or therapies. More information about budgets and support categories can be found here.

How participants use these funds really depends on individual goals, aspirations and support needs.

SETTING GOALS

The NDIS will allow people living with disability to set some goals for the year, such as “move out of home into independent living”, and will then provide funding for any supports needed to work towards this goal.

Goals can be related to things like:

• Assistance with daily living including personal care or meal preparation to assist with the goal of independent living.

• Mentoring, individual skill development, tuition fees, art classes, sports coaching and activities that builds on the goal of social participation and getting out and about in the community.
   
• Home or vehicle modifications or assistive technologies, wheelchair or other equipment costs that will improve quality of life, wellbeing, social participation, communication and independence.
   
• Therapeutic supports, interventions and specialists who can provide therapeutic expertise and assist developing capacity and skills related to independence.

HOW ARE PEOPLE USING THEIR NDIS PLANS?

Alisa (aged 16)

Prior to the NDIS, Alisa relied solely on family and friends for support and was limited in what she could do.  Her parents didn’t think she could move out of home. Now Alisa has a young 21 year old support worker she’s hired as a mentor, who can buddy up with her and attend community club events and youth groups. Her mentor also teaches her how to cook, do domestic tasks and budget her money – so she is working towards her goal of living independently and she is proving her parents wrong! Her mentor visits Alisa 3 days a week for 2 hours. 

Jeff (aged 23)

Prior to the NDIS, Jeff has struggled to find a job and was tired of accessing disability employment services who pushed him into any job they could find regardless of his strengths and interests.  In his NDIS planning meeting the NDIS planner quickly found out that Jeff’s main goal was to find a job and his interests were computers and IT. His NDIS plan enabled Jeff to team up with a mentor who supported him to enrol in his local TAFE and provided personal care and supports when and where Jeff needed it. 

SUMMARY: KEY POINTS

• People need to meet the age, residency and disability or early intervention access requirements to become an NDIS participant and receive an individual plan. More information about accessing the NDIS can be found here.
• Once the participant has been through the planning process and established some goals, the NDIS will provide funding to ensure supports that truly address individual’s needs are purchased.
• NDIS participants are in control of which service providers they choose and how their supports are delivered. There are a range of options on how an NDIS plan can be managed. Participants can choose to self-manage budgets in their plan. More information on self-management can be found here.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE

The NDIS will create a massive boost to Australia’s economy creating jobs in a growing disability sector, meaning more people can enter the workforce and less people will be dependent on income support. This benefits all Australians.

Whilst there has been some stress with the roll out - make no mistake, the NDIS is a big step forward in the right direction for Australia and will change the lives of many people living with disability for the better.

(For more info about the NDIS, check the NDIS website by clicking this link)

---

YOUR VOTE, YOUR IMPACT: HOW YOUNG PEOPLE CHANGED THE RESULT OF THE UK ELECTION

The following piece was written by Faith Blake, as part of the University of Adelaide Community Engagement Learning Project. 

---

The power of young people and their votes is a force to be reckoned with; the recent UK election proved this.

Join us as we discuss the influence young people in the UK had on their election and how young South Australians have the power to create an impact too.

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

• An early UK election was held on the 8th of June, 2017.
• The UK witnessed their largest youth turnout since 1992.
• 66.4 percent turnout for 18-24 year olds.
• Young people provided a boost in seats for UK’s Labour party.
• This resulted in a hung parliament and brought back the two-party system.
• But why was there an increase turnout for young voters?
• Most importantly, why should young South Australians care? Let’s find out.  

THE ELECTION

On the 8th of June this year, our friends on the other side of the world had the delight of voting in the United Kingdom’s 2017 general election. Unlike Australia’s Federal and State elections, voting is not compulsory in the UK and this can have an impact on young people. But how?

Well, The Conversation explains:

 “We know, however, that politicians will provide policies that target large blocs of high-turnout voters, which means that unless young people start voting their views are likely to be further marginalised in the future.”

Past UK elections have seen low turnout rates for young British voters, with the 2015 general election seeing a 43 percent turnout and only 137,400 registered to vote. However, the 2017 general election saw a surge from people under 25 registering to vote, A whopping 57,987 young people registered to vote the day the election was announced, and by the registration deadline more than one million had applied. The voter turnout rate for young people was 66.4 percent, a victorious result which had a major impact on the election.

Want to know more about the election? Here is a helpful video for non-brits by The Guardian:

WHAT MOTIVATED YOUNG PEOPLE TO VOTE?

The massive increase in what is dubbed the ‘youth vote’ was astounding and left many questioning the cause of the unexpected surge. We searched the internet, reading articles from The New York Times, The Guardian, Vox and other news sites, to discover why more young people voted than ever before. Here are some of the possible causes we found:

• The British Labour Party’s increased social media presence, with a focus on addressing young people’s concerns.
• Targeted campaigns like #TurnUp by youth organisations such as Bite the Ballot, My Life My Say, and Undivided.
• Disenfranchisement after the Brexit referendum outcome.
• Anxiety over the future, especially regarding job creation and the NHS (the National Health Service).
• Organisation, Momentum, training young people to be campaigners and sending them out to encourage their peers to vote.
• Viral videos and ‘memes’ – some created by Momentum.

Below is a thought-provoking satirical viral video created by Momentum:

WHAT POLITICAL ISSUES AND POLITICAL PARTIES DID YOUNG PEOPLE SUPPORT AND REJECT?

A popular claim why young people voted is because they were hoodwinked by the promise of abolishing higher education fees; however, this is not the case. Research by Hope Not Hate, an anti-racism group, featured in BuzzFeed’s article, Here’s What Young People Actually Want From 2017’s General Election, shows young people are passionate about a variety of issues. This includes:

• The National Health Service – this was the top concern!
• Brexit
• Education
• Abolishment of tuition fees

They also rejected certain policies such as the legalisation of cannabis, a Liberal Democrat policy, with 49% of young people opposing it. Furthermore, their Brexit priorities didn’t align with either the Conservatives’ or Labour’s election promises. For example, Labour and the Conservatives both want to stop freedom of movement between the UK and the European Union; but, 49% of young people wanted it to be kept.

Illustration: Dominic McKenzie

The Guardian investigated some more key issues for young people and published an article highlighting the views of eight people aged 20-29. The key issues raised were:

• Internet security
• Mental health
• Gender Equality
• The School System
• Employment Opportunities
• Abolishment of Higher Education Fees
• The Environment
• Reducing the Voting Age to 16 or 17

It is clear: young people do care about abolishing university fees but this is not their only concern.

But who did they vote for? Overwhelmingly Labour (not to be confused with Australia's Labor Party). Below is a graphic created by YouGov showing a trend where the younger the voter, the more likely they would vote for Britain's Labour Party. 60% of young people between the ages of 18-24 voted for Labour in the 2017 general election.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, was very popular among young people. Many saw Corbyn as an honest person who cared about addressing their concerns. He ran successful campaigns that included young people in the political process, while removing the smoke and mirror of politics. Their admiration and support for the Labour leader could be seen through the hilarious memes created:

DID YOUNG PEOPLE INFLUENCE THE UK ELECTION?

They certainly did! Although Labour did not win enough seats to form government, the opposing Conservative party was unable to gain enough seats to form a strong lead – resulting in a hung Parliament. This took away the Conservatives majority government and brought back the two party system. Labour achieved a 10 point rise, taking 40% while the Conservatives took 42%.

View fullsize

Britain’s young people flexed their democratic muscles and changes the status quo in their country's politics. Political parties were forced to take notice of the power young people can bring when they are passionate about their future and their country. This was evident in Jeremy Corbyn’s and Labour’s focus on providing youth based policies.

Young people did influence the election – both with voting numbers and with forcing politicians to acknowledge them, form youth based policies and campaign for their vote.

WHY IS THE ‘YOUTH VOTE’ IN THE UK ELECTION IMPORTANT FOR YOUNG SOUTH AUSTRALIANS?

Yes, why should we care about our peers from across the sea? Why should we care about the youth vote in wet, cold Britain when it doesn’t affect us in dry, hot South Australia?

In the 2016 federal election, the Australian electoral commission stated 816,000 Australians were not enrolled to vote. 254,432  of that number were young people, aged 18-24.

South Australia specifically, as of 23 January 2017, has 53,549 people who have not enrolled to vote.

Young South Australians are missing out on having their voice heard. As the young people of UK have shown us, we could have a major impact on the political process and the election.

Leo Fieldgrass from the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition states in an ABC article:

"We're at a point in Australia's history where today's young people look set to be the first generation who will have a lower standard of living than their parents."

It is important that we vote, both in the Federal, State and Local elections. It is our present and our future that we need to fight for. Our voice, our vote can have an impact.

I know as you’re reading this, you are screaming:

Y Vote Australia provides numerous resources for young people unsure about voting and who to vote for. Some great articles are:

• 6 tools to help you make an informed vote this election
• Why your vote matters in local government
• Don't want to vote? Here's 7 inspiring facts you need to know

Their Facebook page is also filled with helpful information. This graphic puts the power of Australia’s youth vote into perspective:

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN!

Are you registered to vote? 

You can enrol online (easy-peasy), as well as update your address (very important!), on the Australian Electoral Commission website. This is free to do and you will not face any fines if you haven’t registered to vote previously. 

It's your turn to drive change. 

PaTH-way to nowhere

The following piece was written by Brandon Winter, as part of the University of Adelaide Community Engagement Learning Project.  

Stable work is key for young people to build a good life for themselves. But with the overall unemployment rate for young people in Australia currently at the shockingly high rate of 12.5% and underemployment at 18%, employment is a significant issue for young people in Australia. 

Source: ABS

Employment is particularly an issue for young people in South Australia with the unemployment rate being 4.1% higher than the national average at 17.6% and only 10,400 available jobs for 24,900 young applicants.

Thankfully, the federal government has come up with a solution. It is called Youth Jobs PaTH, an acronym for Prepare – Trial – Hire. The program will allow young job seekers to work for the equivalent of a generous $4 an hour!  [Editor's note: Just for the sake of clarity - this is sarcasm]

This brilliant solution was originally introduced in the 2016 federal budget and has now come into full swing as of the 1st of April this year. Its aim is to help stem the tide of youth unemployment by providing young people with employability skills and valuable work experience in workplace exploitation. Previously it could take people years to slowly realise they were being exploited by employers. However, now young people will have the upper hand!   [Editor's note: Again. All sarcasm]

Here's how the program works.

PREPARE

If you are between 15 and 24 years old, are on income support and are registered with jobactive, you may be eligible for Employability Skills Training (EST). EST will provide young job seekers with working skills such as communication, working in a team, interview skills and how to find jobs. This is designed to help young job seekers understand what is expected by employers.

Once this is done, you will be able to move onto the next step in the program to do an internship.

TRIAL

If you are between 17 and 24, are on income support and are registered with either jobactive, Transition to Work or Disability Employment Services for at least six months, you may be eligible for a PaTH internship. This gives young people the opportunity to get experience in a business lasting between 4 to 12 weeks, for 15 to 25 hours per week. Interns are unpaid by the business, however, they will receive a fortnightly incentive by the government.

The business that takes on the young person as an intern will receive an upfront payment of $1000 for free labour. 

HIRE

Once you have completed the internship, at this stage the business could hire you! But it is up to them. If they hire you, a financial incentive of up to $10,000 will be paid over six months to the business. The idea behind this being that it should encourage more businesses to hire young job seekers.

Sounds good right? Well…

Here are the problems.

Ideally, PaTH would prepare young people for work with skills training, give them a worthwhile opportunity for workplace experience, and then later result in the young person getting a job. But here are a number of problems with the program:

 

PROBLEM #1 – IT ESSENTIALLY CREATES FREE LABOUR

If you are working as an intern for 4 to 12 weeks and expected to work 15 to 25 hours per week, you would be expecting to earn a decent amount of money, right? Well under this program, young people will only be given a $200 fortnightly incentive on top of their usual income support payments. So if the young person worked 25 hours per week as an intern, this means the incentive works out to be $4 per hour. Yes, $4 per hour!

 

PROBLEM #2 – IT CREATES DISPOSABLE INTERNS

Not only is the incentive of $200 per fortnight frighteningly small, but the program gives incentive for businesses to, as expressed by Ged Kearney the President of the Australian Council for Trade Unions, “… churn through as many young people as possible in order to keep the free labour and government hand-outs rolling in.” With the program giving businesses access to free labour for up to 12 weeks per intern, and a $1000 incentive per intern, why wouldn’t businesses take advantage of free labour by churning through young interns? It is at no cost to them.

 

PROBLEM #3 – STIGMAS

Young people face many stigmas in relation to unemployment, including the perceptions that they are lazy, unwilling to work, and that they are welfare bludgers. However, evidence for the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that there is no difference in work ethic between young people and older people. This suggests that it is not the attitudes of young people that create these stigmas, but that it is the increasing difficulty of getting a job that fosters these stigmas which often come from the minds of people that lived in a time where it was easy to get work.

The PaTH program is aimed at helping remove youth unemployment, and so ideally it should help break down these stigmas. However, the problem is that PaTH internships will unlikely lead to any jobs, continuing the reliance of young people on welfare payments. The PaTH internships do not guarantee a job; if the now 24,900 young job seekers in South Australia were to participate in a PaTH internship, it does not mean 24,900 jobs would magically appear out of thin air after the internships are finished. As previously stated, PaTH actually gives an incentive for businesses to churn through interns without offering any jobs. If young people cannot get a job, they will still be seen as lazy or unwilling to work.

PaTH also requires young people to be on welfare payments to participate. So if young people cannot get a job, PaTH does not help with unemployment, and they remain on welfare to be part of this program, PaTH just continues reliance on welfare payments which carries on the perception that young people are welfare bludgers.

 

PROBLEM #4 – IT DISPLACES CURRENT EMPLOYEES

These internships could also be used by businesses to replace someone who would otherwise be doing a job as a paid employee. Ms Kearney recently stated that the program “… offers employers a fistful of cash to replace a wage-paying job with a worker that they don’t even have to pay at all...” The government, of course, would insist this is not the intent of the program and would say there are guidelines to ensure that employers would only be allowed to take on interns if they are in addition to other paid employees. However, particularly with large retailers, accountability becomes somewhat difficult.

On the 12th of July Andrew Stewart, a Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide, expressed to ABC Radio Sydney that not much can be done to ensure that businesses, especially large ones, do not just adjust their usual roster, giving paid employees fewer hours, and replacing them with interns that do not cost them anything. If businesses do this, then employment will be effectively decreasing, creating more of an issue for young people in the workforce. 

PROBLEM #5 – THE IRELAND EXAMPLE

In 2011, the Irish government introduced the JobBridge National Internship Scheme to address rising youth unemployment figures. Under the scheme, unemployed people on welfare benefits would be able to partake in work experience and would be paid by the government €52.50 per week in addition to their already existing income support payments. The host organisation would receive an incentive from the government of up to €10,000 for employing that person after the internship had finished. Sound familiar?

Well, JobBridge has now been discontinued and its results were published in October 2016. The main finding was that after completing the program, the employment outcomes for the participants were improved by 32%. However, the program was heavily criticised for the lack of quality of jobs found by the participants after the internships, and similarly to PaTH, it was criticised for the exploitation of young people and the displacement of regular employment. In a dissenting report about the PaTH program, the Australian Greens argue that "Replicating these unsuccessful overseas schemes is unlikely to assist in decreasing the high levels of youth employment…" It hardly seems appropriate to address youth unemployment in Australia with an approach that has already been proven ineffective.

PROBLEM #6 – PENALTY RATES

With businesses not being required to pay these interns, PaTH opens the door for businesses to avoid paying penalty rates to regular employees. An SDA spokesperson stated that “There are no safeguards…” for this type of exploitation against actual employees. The Department of Employment also commented that it could not be guaranteed that interns would not be asked to work weekend shifts in place of staff that would otherwise be paid penalty rates on those days. This is particularly concerning because when the Fair Work Commission decided to cut penalty rates earlier this year, the statistics revealed that nearly 40% of young people rely on penalty rates to survive. 

PROBLEM #7 – IT ACTUALLY LOCKS YOUNG PEOPLE OUT OF JOBS

It was found in a report by the Commonwealth Department of Employmentthat only 58% of people below the age of 30 had done some form of unpaid work experience. This suggests that some young people miss out on work experience. With the incredibly low incentive of $4 per hour for PaTH interns, the PaTH program is essentially unpaid work experience. This is a problem because unpaid work experience costs money to the participants, meaning it favours young people that can be financially supported by either family or other work. The sad reality is that a lot of young Australians cannot rely on their families for financial support which means they need to work. So with the unemployment rates being so high for young people, it is unreasonable to have a program that is aimed at helping with youth unemployment when it requires young people to already have jobs in order to participate in the program.

HERE IS A VIDEO OF WHAT SOME YOUNG PEOPLE THINK OF PATH.

Read more about the PaTH Program here:
 

The Guardian's initial reaction to the PaTH program

And the Sydney Morning Herald discusses how the PaTH program is a reflection on how young people are seen by society

---