There aren’t too many activities where you can help others, learn new skills and have fun as well.
But that’s what’s on offer for local young people who join the Youth Solutions YAG – Youth Advisory Group.
YAG is currently recruiting volunteers, aged between 16 and 25.
Youth Solutions is a youth drug and alcohol prevention and health promotion charity, working with young people and the wider community across Macarthur and Wingecarribee.
Chief executive officer Geraldine Dean says YAG plays an important role in ensuring programs, campaigns, activities and, increasingly, its online communications, are appropriately engaging with local young people.
“Our Youth Advisory Group volunteers really are the heart of our organisation,’’ says Ms Dean.
“To effectively reach and work with young people and make a positive impact in their lives, we really need the input of other young people.
“That’s where the YAG come in. They help us to shape our programs and campaigns, are involved in delivering peer education projects, health promotion and social marketing campaigns. Their contribution really is invaluable.”
Youth Solutions community relations and communications coordinator Amanda Dillon says the pandemic had made the work of YAG more important than ever.
“Our YAG are traditionally right alongside our team facilitating workshops, campaigns and activities in the community. Of course, some of this work has now shifted online, particularly where our volunteers are concerned, in order to protect their health, wellbeing and safety during Covid-19,” Ms Dillon said.
“So accordingly, some of our attention has shifted to engaging with more young people online, particularly via social media, to share health promotion information and build a greater sense of online community.
“To assist with this, we are particularly looking for young people who are keen to help us build our followers and contribute content for our social media platforms, as well as the usual cohort of volunteers who share our passion for health promotion and youth health.”
Volunteering at YAG also means picking up new skills and having fun, too.
Health promotion coordinator Sam Young, who oversees the YAG, said volunteers who joined the cause could expect to be part of a fun peer-group and gain plenty of hands-on experience.
“We pride ourselves on giving back to our YAG volunteers to make sure they get something out of volunteering with us.
“We provide lots of internal and external training opportunities, as well as plenty of chances to get real experience in the health promotion, youth work, social marketing and community engagement areas,” Ms Young said.
“Just last month we wrapped up a campaign, #whyichoose, a youth take on traditional anti-smoking campaigns.
“The campaign aimed to reshape the conversation around tobacco smoking, to focus on the positive health, social, economic and other benefits that can come from choosing not to smoke.
“With leadership from our YAG volunteers, we managed to collect 300 campaign surveys and share our campaign messages far and wide online, which just goes to show the power of youth involvement in youth campaigns.”
The Youth Solutions YAG meets monthly (currently online) on a Tuesday evening for training and to discuss and plan project, campaign and other volunteering opportunities.
