Media Release: Horticulture and environmental programs to help train youth

Mission Australia, in conjunction with Job Futures and Now Green, will launch three new National Green Jobs Corps (NGJC) programs this month to provide young West Australians with valuable environmental and horticultural skills.

NGJC is an Australian Government youth development program, offering people aged 17-24 the opportunity to receive work experience and quality training while participating in projects which contribute to significant environmental and cultural heritage initiatives.

Mission Australia program consultant Kristina Hayley said the six month long programs - Horticulture at City Farm, North of Perth Bushland Regeneration and Perth’s City Conservation Youth Project – gave young West Australians the opportunity to learn skills in a diverse range of activities which benefit the environment and local communities.

“Each program offers a wide range of work experience from regenerating and replanting degraded bushland, growing vegetables and native species to all aspects of plant propagation, small construction projects and weed eradication.

“This includes monitoring the water use and solar panel efficiency at City Farm and maintaining the Urban Orchard garden outside the Art gallery of WA in the Perth Cultural Centre.

“There is even a project that involves growing designer mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds,” Ms Hayley said.

“At the end of the six month course participants will receive a Certificate 11 in Horticulture or Certificate 11 in Conservation and Land Management and be equipped with practical skills and training to help them gain employment in horticultural or environmental industries.”

Event date:  Monday 15 August 2011
When:  2.00pm
Where:  City Farm, 1 City Farm Place, East Perth WA 6104

Interview and photo opportunities:
Kristina Hayley, Mission Australia
National Green Jobs Corps participants

Media enquiries:
Jo Ann Blizzard (08) 9388 0944 or 0416 038 787

Big Heart rises from the ashes

A new IMB-funded initiative for Mission Australia’s Big Heart Enterprises will help the Bellambi operation to bounce back after last month’s warehouse fire.

The Bags for Rags project, which is likely to create new employment opportunities as well as work experience and training for Illawarra residents, has been set up thanks to a $24,000 fast-tracked community grant from the building society.

This project joins Mission Australia’s other local environmental enterprise - Soft Landing - which strips mattresses of recyclable parts such as metal, foam and timber and in the process diverts some 140 tonnes of waste from landfill.

It will also work in conjunction with our Big Heart retail enterprise, which diverts more than 100,000 tonnes of clothing from landfill through seven Big Heart opportunity shops in the Illawarra and south-western Sydney.

Clothes, mattresses and televisions stored in the 4,000 square metre warehouse that is home to our Big Heart and Soft Landing businesses were destroyed when a stack of mattress frames caught alight on 6 March.

Mission Australia NSW Operations Manager Social Enterprises Bill Dibley told today’s Illawarra Mercury that the IMB grant could not have come at a better time.

"It was a huge bonus for us that they were prepared to move the funding forward." he said.

Bags to Rags is the brainchild of Project Manager Justine Fitzgibbon, who saw an opportunity to provide waste material to service stations, mechanics, manufacturing and hardware businesses.

"I would like to see Bags to Rags up and running by the start of the new financial year," she told The Illawarra Mercury. "Initially we will be utilising volunteers and providing work experience through schools, job services and from anyone wanting to volunteer their time.”

Ms Fitzgibbon added that as the program grows it will hopefully employ people through a traineeship scheme.

In recent weeks Big Heart Enterprises volunteers have been working from a site in Fairymeadow, but it is hoped that all staff and volunteers will be able to return to Bellambi next month.

Volunteer or find out more:

• Big Heart is always looking for volunteer retail and warehouse workers as well as truck drivers. If you would like to donate your time to support Mission Australia in the Illawarra, including as a Bags to Rags volunteer, please call 1800 110 578 or visit volunteering@missionaustralia.com.au.
• Watch this short video to find out more about Mission Australia’s Soft Landing social enterprise

Mission accomplished for Green Jobs Corps graduates

When Daniel received his Certificate II in Conservation and Land Management earlier this month, he was as proud as could be.

Daniel was among a group of motivated youths that completed Mission Australia’s 26-week National Green Jobs Corps (NGJC) project.

This environmental training program offered young people aged between 17 to 24 years a combination of work experience, horticultural skill development and accredited training to equip them with the skills necessary for employment in green and climate-change industries.

Daniel told The Sunshine, Ardeer, Albion Star newspaper that the course helped him regain confidence in his own ability and made the future seem brighter.

“I never got out of bed before 8am,” he recalled. "I would sleep until one or two in the afternoon and waste half of my day. But the course motivated me to get up and do something."

He said the course would also help him land his dream job - a customs officer for the Marine Unit.

As part of the course, the group of graduates from Melbourne’s west worked on the restoration of native habitat environment, revegetation, environmental weed control, mulching, water monitoring, propagation and native plantings as well as flora and fauna surveys. This real work experience was gained at the Iramoo Sustainable Community Centre at Victoria University’s St Albans campus.

“Our recent graduates enjoyed making a difference to the local environment and picking up skills for the future,” said Anthony Moore, Victoria Regional Manager, Mission Australia.

“We want to congratulate each graduate on this big achievement and wish them all the best on their career journey here on in.”

Congratulations to all our Green Jobs Corps graduates!

Photo credit: Kristian Scott, The Sunshine, Ardeer, Albion Star.

National Survey of Young Australians 2010 – what they’re saying

Mission Australia’s annual national survey, which tested the views of more than 50,000 young people, has once again sparked discussion.

One of the results from this year’s survey is the level to which young Victorians are concerned about crime, safety and violence above their interstate peers.

Thirty-two per cent of young Victorian respondents see crime, safety and violence as one of our country’s biggest issues, compared to 21 per cent nationally.

Mission Australia’s State Director - Victoria, Paul Bird, explored these findings in an opinion piece for The Punch. You can read his piece, 'Fear of violence is killing Victorian culture', here.

Mia Freedman was alarmed that body image continues to be a major concern for young Australians. “Never before have young people been so bombarded by fake images of digitally altered ‘perfection’. Is it any wonder they look in the mirror and feel bad about themselves?” she wrote on her Mama Mia blog, click here to read on.

ABC TV news last night also focused on body image, and that youth are reporting to be under increased stress levels since previous surveys, click here to view the full story.

Mission Australia releases new report: the ninth annual ‘National Survey of Young Australians’

The ‘National Survey of Young Australians 2010: key and emerging themes’ is the ninth consecutive annual youth survey report released by our Research and Social Policy team.

Download or view the full report from this link

The survey is the largest of its kind in Australia and in 2010 received over 50,000 responses from young people across the country. Respondents came from diverse communities across each state and territory.

The survey asks young Australians aged 11 to 24 about what they value, their issues of personal concern, where they turn for advice and support and their community involvement. Two new questions were included this year, regarding the most important issues facing Australia today and feelings about the future.

As in previous years, there was a great deal of consistency around what young people value and where they go for advice and support, in each case namely their family and friends.

A more complex picture has emerged from the data around young people’s issues of concern. Nationally, body image, family conflict and coping with stress were the top three issues for respondents, with over a quarter identifying each as being a major concern. However, a number of issues were of concern to a substantial proportion of respondents and in 2010 there was no one ‘standout’ issue.

The unprompted responses to the question regarding what young people thought were the most important issues facing Australia today were a little clearer, with the environment and alcohol and drugs being the top two concerns across all ages, both genders, indigenous participants, and across all States and Territories.

An encouraging finding from the youth survey was the responses to one of our new questions, feelings about the future, with approximately two thirds of young people feeling either very positive or positive about the future.

The survey report contains summaries at the national level as well as for each state and territory. There is also a chapter that compares responses from Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal respondents. Each of the chapters contains a breakdown of the key data by age and gender.

For further information, or to order copies of the report (free of charge), please contact Aimee Tyson on (02) 9219 2022 or tysona@missionaustralia.com.au.

Media Release: Body image and environment of greatest concern to young Australians

Body image is the leading personal concern for young Australians while close to one-in-two list the environment as the most important issue facing the nation according to the country's largest annual survey of young people.

The survey also shows that young Australians are wrestling with stress and school/study worries at far greater levels than in recent years.

Download or view the full report from this link

The national survey, conducted by Mission Australia, tested the views of more than 50,000 young people - its biggest group since the survey began in 2002 - between the ages of 11-24 (98 per cent aged 11-19). In addition to their concerns it surveys what young people value, who they turn to for advice, what activities they engage in and how they feel about the future.

When asked to rank their personal concerns from 15 issues body image was ranked most frequently in the top three by 31.1 per cent of respondents, followed by family conflict at 27.8 per cent and coping with stress at 27.3 per cent.

Body image was the leading issue of concern for 11-14 and 15-19 year olds and for females. Almost one-in-two 20-24 year olds considered it a major concern. For young males, body image was the second highest concern behind alcohol - 27.4 per cent to 28.5 per cent.

Coping with stress (18.7 per cent in 2009 - 27.3 per cent in 2010) and school or study problems (17.3 per cent in 2009 - 25.5 per cent in 2010) experienced the greatest increases in concern from last year's survey.

For the first time the survey asked young people for their unprompted views on the most important issues facing Australia.

Heading the responses was environment with 45.7 per cent ranking it as a 'top three' issue followed by alcohol and drugs (37.1 per cent) and crime, safety and violence (21.0 per cent). Environment was the major issue for all age groups and for both males and females.

Mission Australia's spokesperson, Anne Hampshire, said concern about body image was evenly split between young people worried about their personal appearance and the unrealistic portrayal of 'the perfect body' in the media and elsewhere.

"What came through strongly in responses was that young people are worried both about their personal body image and about how the media continues to promote a level of physical perfection that is neither healthy nor achievable. It places an enormous amount of pressure on young people," said Ms Hampshire.

"I think it tells us that despite the fact that governments, welfare groups and youth agencies have moved to tackle the issue of poor body image in recent years, there's still a lot of work to do - particularly among young adults where we saw the biggest jump in concern.

"In terms of young people nominating the environment as the most important issue facing the country it's clear from their responses they believe urgent action is required on a number of fronts.

"Young people are particularly keen for government leadership as well as a broad community response to the issue. They want Australians of all ages - including themselves - and backgrounds to take personal responsibility for their behaviour and lifestyle and how they impact on the environment.

"What's important to note with this question is that we gave respondents a clean slate.

"We didn't ask them to rank the issues - as we do with personal concerns - and that speaks volumes for the fact that almost one-in-two respondents identified the environment as the main issue facing Australia."

Ms Hampshire said increased concerns about coping with stress and school/study problems reflected the importance of equipping young people with the ability to deal with life pressures.

"We often forget the range of competing demands and pressures juggled by young people - relationships, education, employment, the expectations of parents, peers, schools, the wider community as well as themselves," said Ms Hampshire.

"This can be a very stressful time and our results bear that out. Many young people indicated they wanted to be able to manage their stress better, noting the potential negative consequences of not doing so, including a range of mental health issues.

"We need to better equip young people, including in early adolescence, with the practical strategies to help them deal with stress. The level of concern picked up in our survey suggests the merit in a broader discussion about the nature and sources of stress among young people and how we can alleviate it."

Ms Hampshire said participants clearly distinguished between matters of personal importance and those they considered national issues.

"For example, while body image was the leading personal concern, only 2.2 per cent of respondents featured it as an important issue facing Australia.

"At the same time participants saw alcohol and drugs both as significant personal concerns and as leading issues facing the nation.

"That's because, as a personal concern, they are worried about the impact of drugs and alcohol on family and friends and not having the skills to deal with the issue.

"In terms of national importance they see the impact alcohol and drugs have on the broader community. That's partly why crime, safety and violence was also a major issue of national importance - respondents often linking these issues to alcohol which we believe increases the urgency for action in this area."

One of the significant results in the 2010 survey was a reversal in the decline in the number of young people involved in extra-curricular activities.

"The number of young people involved in an arts or cultural activity - such as drama, music or dance -almost halved between the 2008 and 2009 surveys. In fact, across every single activity we surveyed participation in extra-curricular pursuits decreased in 2009.

"We put this down to how, when the global financial crisis hit, some families and young people opted to spend less on things such as dance or piano lessons or tickets to the football.

"This year, activity results have bounced back to 2008 levels and above which I think reflects some confidence in the strength of the local economy."

Ms Hampshire said despite the fact young people were shouldering a diverse range of serious concerns - often from a tender age - the survey had detected a significant level of optimism in the future.

"For the first time this year we asked participants to tell us how they felt about the future. The answer was resoundingly optimistic. Two-thirds were positive about the future while only around 9 per cent were negative. The remaining 27 per cent were neither.

"Young Australians are also incredibly grounded. When asked what they value, financial security lags way behind family and friends - that's very encouraging," said Ms Hampshire.

Download or view the full report from this link

Media contacts:

• Paul Andrews (02) 9219 2080 or 0409 665 495
• Patrick Flynn (02) 9641 5031 or 0407 411 256