Amber, 18, is a member of the Northern Region Youth Advisory Council.

A move to further strengthen the state’s youth advisory councils has taken a significant leap forward with the expansion of the network into Whyalla, Kadina and Mount Gambier.

The councils are aimed at helping elevate young voices and empowering young people to contribute to child protection and family support system reform.

The Department for Child Protection (DCP) last year established the new groups, including one in Adelaide, and there are now nine councils meeting throughout South Australia.

These groups are helping children and young people share their experiences with the child protection and family support system, creating new bonds between members and assisting sector staff to improve supports for those in care.

The state’s longest running group is the Mount Barker Young People’s Council, which recently won the Voice of Children and Young People in Care category at the SA Child Protection and Family Support Awards.

The group was established 18 years ago, to ensure DCP was well engaged with the broader community, including young people. Members’ voices have helped inform DCP on a range of issues, including shaping new child protection and family support legislation, guiding the running of events and highlighting areas where young people want more information about particular issues, such as post-care supports when they leave care.

Groups generally meet once a month for consultations and to hear from guest speakers on important topics such as banking and financial safety, to help build their life skills.

They also host school holiday activities. Council members will be consulted as the department develops its legislated statement of commitment to children and young people, which will set out the department’s commitment towards the children and young people it supports.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Child Protection Katrine Hildyard

Children and young people have the best insight about what would make a difference in their lives.   It’s crucial that we elevate their voices in all that we do, as we go about reforming the child protection and family support system in ways that help improve their lives.

Youth advisory councils, and the Ministerial Youth Advisory Council we have implemented, show children and young people that their voices matter, that they matter, that their wisdom is crucial and that we depend upon them speaking up as we work to help create a better system for young people across our state.

Young people in care are often described as vulnerable.  They have vulnerabilities but they are also the strongest and wisest young people I have ever encountered.  It is an honour to listen and learn from them.

I’m indebted to those who are joining these groups and sharing their experiences, in a bid to help us provide the best possible supports for other children and young people, and their birth and carer families.

Quotes attributable to Greg Dart, Mount Barker Practice Leader

We wanted to replicate what a Student Representative Council looks like in a school. It’s our responsibility to elevate children and young people’s voices in the work that we do, and we truly value young people’s voices.

We have about 8-10 young people in the group at any one time and we treat those young people as the guiders of our work and their voice contributes to how we operate as an office and how DCP operates more broadly.

We can only do the best job that we can do if we’re listening to the people we’re working with and bringing that to the forefront of all of the decision making that we might be engaging in.

Quotes attributable to Amber, Northern Region Youth Advisory Council

We meet twice each term and also during the school holidays. I feel like I’m getting a lot of information I wouldn’t normally get just coming from social workers.

We’ve had conversations about family and siblings and how important contact is, and I feel like that’s improved a lot over the last couple of years.

We’ve also had people come out, like RASA (Relationships Australia SA) and (advocacy body) CREATE, to talk to us.

We help make forms for young people – we made a form that says, ‘what to expect in your annual review’. We do that all the time with different organisations.

I want to go to TAFE and study a Certificate IV in Child, Youth and Family Intervention. I’d like to be a youth worker in residential care and eventually work up to being a social worker.

I just feel like I want to support people because I have a very similar experience to them. (Graduating) is a big achievement – I’ve had the goal since I was in Year 5. My siblings have supported me a lot. My sister has had a big role in that – encouraging me to continue.