Forum put to good youth
HOW smart can Geelong be in tackling young people’s disadvantage?
That’s the question being posed at a forum on Wednesday as part of the Smart Geelong Network’s annual Research and Innovation Expo.
‘‘This is a very serious question we need to be asking ourselves,’’ said Associate Professor Peter Kelly from the Alfred Deakin Research Institute, which along with the Deakin University’s School of Education, is co-hosting the forum.
‘‘If you look around Geelong you can see there are people conducting excellent research and involved in creating wonderfully innovative new programs and projects.
‘‘You can also see amazing areas of wealth, which are of course one of the sought-after by-products of research and innovation.
‘‘However, if you look closely at our region you can also see co-existing with this wealth, areas of great youth disadvantage.
‘‘Geelong has some of the most disadvantaged postcodes in Australia.
‘‘In fact, one of Australia’s richest private schools and one of our poorest suburbs share the same postcode.
‘‘If we really want a smart Geelong, then we have to look at ways of reducing that type of disadvantage, particularly among young people and that’s what this forum will be aiming to do.’’
Participants in the forum include: Ken Massari assistant principal — retention, Northern Bay P-12 College; Anne-Marie Ryan, executive officer, Geelong Region Local Learning and Employment; Associate Professor Peter Kelly and Dr Perri Campbell from the Alfred Deakin Research Institute; Professor Christopher Hickey and Associate Professor Lyn Harrison Deakin’s School of Education.
While the Smart Geelong Network’s Research and Innovation Expo has been going for seven years, this is the first time that the Alfred Deakin Research Institute and Deakin’s School of Education have been involved, bringing a broader social context to the week’s events.
Associate professors Kelly and Harrison have an extensive research background in youth studies and continue to look closely at the challenges faced by young people as workers, and the ways in which youth transitions — and the family, employment, study and peer relationships shaped by these processes — are being remade by the emergence of a globalised knowledge economy.
The two associate professors are working on an Australian Research Council Linkage project in collaboration with Mission Australia.
This project, called Capacity Building and Social Enterprise: Individual and Organisational Transformation in Transitional Labour Market Programs, is conducting research into Mission Australia’s social enterprise Transitional Labour Market Program at the Charcoal Lane restaurant in Gertrude St, Fitzroy.
This social enterprise provides training and support for unemployed young people.
This project emerged from the research for and publication of their book Working in Jamie’s Kitchen: Salvation, Passion and Young Workers.
The book used the manufactured drama of the TV series Jamie’s Kitchen and Jamie’s Kitchen Australia to examine the ways in which marginalised young people are required to transform themselves into the type of person who can secure a tenuous form of salvation in the globalised labour markets of the 21st century.
A key aspect of this forum will be audience involvement, particularly from young people.
‘‘It can’t be about the people sitting on the panel telling young people what they need, which is what happens with so many other programs,’’ according to Ms Ryan.
‘‘It needs to be an open discussion with everyone contributing, which is why we would like to see as many young people come along as possible.
‘‘What we need to find out is what young people in our region feel they need to help remove them from disadvantage and promote their engagement in education and employment opportunities.’’
Wednesday’s forum is being held in the Atrium of the Alfred Deakin Research Institute on the Geelong Waterfront, starting at 5.30pm. Admission is free.