Get Heard/Make a Difference
Get Heard/Make a Difference
Get Heard/Make a Difference is a young person led advocacy strategy through which the young people we support are afforded the spaces and resources to advocate regarding:
Feeling and being safe from abuse in any form when they are in our care.
The types of support they receive and the ways in which support is provided.
Suggestions as to how we may improve the types of services we provide and the ways in which we provide these services.
Advocating at a local, state, and national level about issues that impact on them and their peers.
Get Heard/Make a Difference is a participation strategy that reflects our commitment to National Child Safe principles and to Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the rights of a young person, which states that every young person has the right to be heard. The Australian Institute of Family Studies (2017) highlights the following:
That participation contributes to protection and leads to better decision making and outcomes for a young person.
Participation ensures that decisions are fully informed by a young person’s own perspectives resulting in more relevant, more effective, and more sustainable outcomes for a young person.
Young people have a unique body of knowledge about their lives, needs and concerns, together with ideas and views which derive from their direct experience.
Participation serves to protect young people and the self-esteem and confidence acquired through participation empowers young people to challenge abuses of their rights.