Commissioner’s Opinion
Through her work as South Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Helen Connolly is driving home the message that listening to children and young people should be our priority. Helen firmly believes that, where possible, we should work with children and young people to co-design solutions that take into account their opinions, ideas and lived experience. Below are opionion editorials written by Helen and published by mainstream media and shared on socials.
Regional Regeneration with Young People
Many of the children and young people living in the 2015 bushfire affected communities of Pinery and Sampson Flat, and more recently affected communities of Cudlee Creek, Port Lincoln, Yorktown, and Kangaroo Island, have been part of a wide ranging series of conversations I have had about their future hopes and dreams, sense of connection, and trust in institutions and services.
Sink or swim — learning to surf the Internet safely!
Surfing online waters can be a dangerous pursuit. Not quite the sharks and rips, shore breaks and leash tangles of real waters, but still for many, as scary as the ocean. How can we best support young people to surf the internet safely?
Future Generations: 2020 is a pivotal year for our common future.
Today marks the final day of this year’s Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland. In its 50th year, the World Economic Forum’s mission statement of being ‘the foremost creative force for engaging the world’s top leaders in collaborative activities to shape the global, regional and industry agendas at the beginning of each year’ appears to be increasingly necessary.
Too many South Australian children and young people are ‘falling off the edge’
Children do not choose their lives. They don’t select their parents and they don’t have the opportunities that adults have to change their situation. Communities and government must do more to improve the lives of South Australia’s children and young people who we know are ‘doing it tough’.
When I’m 25…
This really is like asking ‘how long is a piece of string’. Each group of children and young people I meet is different. Each group has a different purpose and each individual a unique view of the world. But having said that, I do, like everyone else, group children and young people together in an effort to try and make sense of patterns I see in raw data.
‘Leave no one behind’ say 200 young people at the Poverty Summit 2019
Open to all South Australian students in years 10 -12, the first-of-its kind Poverty Summit was run entirely by and for young people, positioning young South Aussies as global leaders in developing real-world solutions to poverty, applying a local focus to a global issue.
Children are by nature respectful
Each year National Reconciliation Week celebrates and creates a space and time for us all to think about how we live and work together as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. At the heart of these celebrations is the call to examine the relationship between the broader Australian community and Australia’s First Nation’s peoples.
Federal Election Priority: Place our children and young people front and centre for a change
On the eve of our Federal Election I am reflecting on what it means to put our children and young people front and centre when designing policies and programs that will specifically address their needs.
Young people know what will deliver a more youthful city– if only we’d ask them
Evidence shows that young people worldwide are seeking opportunities to participate in building communities that value their energy and naturally innovative approach. For cities to have a strong economic and cultural life, we need to ask young people what they need and want — and what they want is cities that are connected, creative and confident.
Mental Health: what children and young people have told me they need from us
Over the past 20 months since taking on this role, children and young people have told me and taught me a lot. They have taught me they are the barometers of hypocrisy, they are the secret source of our future growth and opportunity, and they are the focus of our adult anxiety about just about anything we are uncertain of or uncomfortable with.