Latest Announcements
Media Releases
Media Release: Teenagers and Safety
Stark differences between genders in relation to teenagers’ experiences of safety
South Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Helen Connolly, has today released her latest report Teenagers and Safety – an examination of the 908 survey responses received from South Australian 12 to 19-year-olds who participated in her Teenagers and Safety Survey conducted throughout May and June this year.
Commissioner Connolly highlights the different understandings and meanings of safety that young people of different genders have, thereby identifying the need to explicitly address the relationship between safety and gender in any policy strategies or activities relating to teenagers and safety currently in development.
Along with gender, demographics contribute to different experiences of safety amongst teenagers, and the likelihood of when or where a teenager may feel unsafe. It is clear from the responses that teenagers experience safety differently in different settings.
Given the wide-ranging impact experiences and feelings around safety have on all aspects of a young person’s life, the onus is on education, business, health, and the wider community to recognise children and young people’s right to feel safe.
Read the full Media Release here.
Read the full report here.
Our Future Our Vote
Make democracy fairer: lower the voting age to 16 for local government elections say SA young people.
A poll of more than 769 secondary school students reveals half believe the voting age for local government elections should be lowered from 18 to 16 years, with two thirds saying they would ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ vote if it was.
The poll also revealed young people’s reasons for wanting to vote from a younger age including having an opportunity to ‘have a voice on what goes on in local government’ and having ‘a say on the future of the country by participating in electing the people that represent us best’.
Members of the SA SRC’s Our Future Our Vote campaign undertook the poll to ensure their view ‘that young people want to exercise their right to have a say on the decisions being made about the world they live in’ is representative of their peers.
As the generation who will be shaped by decisions being made now, the poll responses show that secondary school age students are keen to have their perspectives and experiences, which are different to those of older generations, considered.
Read the full Media Release here.
Read the full position brief here.
Seeing Ourselves
SA SRC Seeing Ourselves campaign proposes regular diversity reviews to ensure SA schools are inclusive of all students.
A poll of more than 750 high school students reveals many students are unaware of youth-led school-based programs to celebrate or support diversity amongst students.
Members of the SA SRC’s Seeing Ourselves campaign aim to change this with their proposal to introduce a regular diversity review of a school’s policies, curriculum, and co-curricular groups, to ensure these embrace diversity and inclusiveness, both in principle and in practice. Importantly, the review must be undertaken using mechanisms that involve students as co-designers and contributors.
Young people in South Australia are clear they want their schools to be places that support inclusiveness and diversity, acknowledging that students have differing sexualities and gender identities, mental and physical disabilities, and diversity in religious practices and cultural backgrounds.
Read the full Media Release here.
Read the full position brief here.
Fitness for Free
Government and fitness industry should work together to benefit young people’s mental health.
A poll of more than 617 South Australian high school students reveals two-thirds of them believe their mental health would benefit from free access to gyms while they are in high school, particularly for those who are living with mental health issues.
The poll also revealed that a third of students who responded want more access to swimming pools, public sports fields and courts, fitness classes, school sports, club sports and recreation centres, and more time to participate in fitness activities overall.
Students described a range of barriers they face to participating in more sport and fitness activities while in high school. These barriers included cost, opening times, availability of sessions, and transport. They also reported gender barriers that included a lack of female teams, poor quality community courts and fields, and age-related restrictions at some facilities and recreation centres.
Members of the SA SRC’s Fitness for Free campaign are highlighting that much more needs to be done to support young people with mental health challenges, and that providing free access to gyms and other fitness facilities for those who need it is a positive step that government and the fitness industry can take to provide practical support for high school students.
Read the full Media Release here.
Read the full position brief here.
Greening Our Canteens
Students want school canteens to go green with fresh fruit and veg and sustainable food waste practices
A poll of more than 1,398 South Australian high school students reveals they want their school canteens to be offering more fresh and affordable food, and to improve the way food packaging and food waste at schools is being managed.
Students want to be involved in the planning and decision-making that will decide how best to reduce their school’s collective waste levels and ensure they adopt sustainable practices that include changing how food is being managed, supplied and disposed of at schools across the state.
Suggestions from students included creating more school community gardens from which canteen staff can harvest fresh, more affordable food daily, and to which school food waste currently going to landfill can be diverted as compost. They also want to see plastic packaging removed and utensils at school canteens replaced with reusable or recyclable kitchenware and cutlery, while offering students ‘eat in’ options to support these changes.
Read the full Media Release here.
Read the full position brief here.
Free Fares for Our Future
Free public transport for SA high school students would ease cost of living pressures.
A poll of more than 912 South Australian high school students reveals free access to public transport would ease cost of living pressures on many families, while also enabling some students to participate in school, sport and other extra-curricular activities they currently forego.
Students described the stress of finding money to pay for their bus and train fares to get them to and from school, work, sport, and other extra-curricular commitments as being at an all-time high. Other stresses associated with finding fares included managing MetroCard levels so as not to risk incurring fare evasion fines, having an over reliance on parents and carers for transport, and struggling with a general lack of mobility and autonomy as a result.
Members of the SA SRC’s Free Fares for our Future campaign are highlighting that current fare subsidies, although in existence, do not go far enough, particularly for less financially secure young people whose families do not have sufficient funds to absorb cost of living pressures. These young people are foregoing involvement in sport, school excursions and other social and recreational opportunities that their peers enjoy because the cost of their transport to and from school must be prioritised over these other expenses.
Read the full Media Release here.
Read the full position brief here.
The Things That Matter 5 Report
More time with their parents, more time to play, and more trust – just 3 of the things 18,328 ‘Tweens’ told their Commissioner matters to them most
The Things That Matter 5 report is out today! It’s the fifth in a series of reports released by South Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Helen Connolly, summarising what children have told her about their lives via her annual Student Voice Postcards initiative.
Each year “Tell Helen” postcards are sent to every school in South Australia inviting children aged 8 to 12 years to tell their Commissioner what matters to them. With the support of school educators, the postcards come back full of responses as drawings and hand written messages. The number of children participating increases every year, with students responding in 2023 representing (56%) or 347 of the 643 primary schools with students in years 2 – 6 across the State.
The key take aways from children’s responses are that kids love playing and having fun together outdoors. They want more playgrounds and opportunities for physical activity and sport both in their local community and at school and they want more time with their parents. They also want to be listened to and taken seriously by grownups and they want all people to value kindness more. They need school to be more engaging and relevant to their lives, and they appreciate not having adult responsibilities so they can just be kids.
Read the full Media Release here.
Read the full report here.
Funding for 7 period justice projects to mark International Menstrual Health Day
To coincide with International Menstrual Health Day (Tuesday 28 May), South Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Helen Connolly, is pleased to announce recipients of her 2024 Period Justice grants.
Sports clubs, arts organisations, community groups and local councils across South Australia are amongst the grant recipients being supported to deliver essential menstrual education and/or to supply free period products to benefit SA children and young people across the state.
In Mount Barker a proportion of grant funds will be used to support an artist to create a portable mural on themes of period poverty and menstruation. The artwork will be strategically positioned in high-traffic areas across the Mount Barker District to raise awareness and ‘spark meaningful dialogues’ across the community.
The African Women’s Federation of SA will be funded to build on their work of raising awareness amongst African communities via their ‘Resonating Voices: Empowering Young African Women and Families’ initiative, which seeks to remove period stigma by making activities and education workshops fun and geared toward discussion and taboo breaking.
SHINE SA will use their grant funding to provide sustainable period products and menstruation information at ‘Tarpari Wellbeing Day’ in Port Pirie. They will also adapt their Menstrual Health Kit to make it more accessible to Aboriginal children and young people, and available through schools and community health care centres.
Port Adelaide Netball association will use their grant funds to provide education kits and hold a menstruation awareness game night. Swimming SA will provide high quality education for the swimming community working in conjunction with Pelvic Pain Australia to deliver tailored workshops to coaches as well as swimmers.
The Town of Gawler will partner with TABOO to deliver a Period Products Provision Trial that includes an online period poverty awareness workshop. They will also produce information on where young people in Gawler can access free menstrual hygiene products including Gawler’s youth space, the local library, the tertiary hub, heritage centre, council café and business innovation hub.
Volleyball SA will roll out their education program ‘Game Changing. Period’. Working in conjunction with the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia to educate coaches and players around period justice issues, they will be purchasing sanitary pads and tampons to be added to equipment boxes located on site at all SA volleyball venues.
This is the third year the Commissioner has provided grant funding for period justice education, hygiene products and disposal infrastructure.
The Commissioner devised the funding program after many conversations with children and young people revealed the scale of the issue, and the seriousness of the stigma and taboo young people are experiencing.
Background
In her report, Menstruation Matters (2021), the Commissioner identified menstruation as having a wide-ranging impact on young people’s wellbeing, affecting school attendance, involvement in sport, capacity to work, and ability to socialise.
In 2021, the Commissioner launched endperiodpoverty.com – a website designed to raise awareness and promote action on period poverty. In June, that year she hosted the first National Period Summit with over 100 representatives from organisations around Australia attending in-person and online. In 2023, she held the first Youth Period Summit attracting 70 young people who are passionate about menstrual health and period justice. The second Youth Period Summit is set for September 2024.
As momentum for period justice has built around the world the Commissioner relaunched her end period poverty website as periodjustice.com.au reflecting the need to address the full range of issues around periods and menstruation. Providing a central point of access for resources, information and activities the site contains links to over 250 resources curated into collections around self-help, menstrual health, research and policy, education and teaching.
Quotes attributable to Commissioner Helen Connolly:
I am pleased to be able to continue to fund worthwhile period justice projects and activities across the SA community. Funding focused on reducing stigma and taboo around periods and menstruation, as well as providing essential period hygiene products for those who need them, will have a positive impact on children and young people’s lives. No-one should be made to feel embarrassed or ashamed in relation to periods and menstruation. We all need to continue to do all we can to address this issue for the health and wellbeing of the whole community.
It is important that periods and menstruation are normalised so that no child or young person is made to feel shame or embarrassment at what is a basic bodily function. The only way South Australia can hope to put an end to period stigma and taboo is to tackle menstrual ignorance and period poverty head on. Adults need to continue to offer support through services and projects that ensure schools, community organisations, sports clubs, and other places where young people gather, provide quality information and support, as well as free access to products whenever they need them, thereby helping to normalise periods and menstruation at every turn.
Visit https://periodjustice.com.au
Media Contact: Sharon Cleary | Senior External Relations & Communications Adviser
M: 0407 990 983 | E: sharon.cleary@sa.gov.au
Policy Position: Commissioner calls on government to provide leadership on children and young people’s health
Currently South Australia lacks an overarching or unifying vision for children and young people’s health, and therefore a way of aligning cross government and community efforts to a common set of goals and actions. Our future depends on investing in healthy children, families, and communities, and that starts with an overarching vision that can ensure policy and decision making prioritises investment in children and young people with a plan that builds on existing evidence, policy and partnerships, to repeat, enhance and expand on what we know is working, and to remedy and reform what isn’t.
Although there are significant strategies and service providers in place throughout SA, including the state’s ten local health networks, the siloed and fragmented nature of these services means we have a system that is inefficient, with competing agendas and priority areas, and with policy design commonly separated from policy implementation. The experience for children and young people and their families attempting to navigate these separated service systems across different agencies and levels of government, is ultimately frustrating and unsatisfying, and one which often does not deliver on the health solutions children and young people are seeking or should be able to expect.
Read the full media release here
Download the Position Policy here
South Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Helen Connolly, will host the 2024 group of 150 new members of the South Australian Student Representative Council (SA SRC) who will meet at the Adelaide Festival Centre today (Friday 22 March) for the annual SA SRC Summit. This will be the third group of 150 students from years 10, 11 and 12 who have been selected to the SA SRC, with this year’s council members coming from 44 state electorates and representing 80 government, catholic and independent schools from across the state. Along with those from Adelaide metro and the Greater Adelaide and Hills regions, there are young people from Years 10, 11 and 12 who will be travelling from Mount Gambier, Whyalla and Port Lincoln, Cummins, Grant and Millicent, as well as from Port Broughton, Berri, Keith, Gladstone, Kapunda, Penola, Cowell and Balaklava to attend.
Many will have their first opportunity to meet face-to-face with their State Member of Parliament and discuss the ideas they have for change. South Australia’s politicians have been very supportive of the Commissioner’s SA SRC with 20 state parliamentarians confirmed to attend tomorrow’s Summit in person.
Media Welcome: Friday 22 March 2024 | 9am to 4pm | Banquet Room, Adelaide Festival Centre.
Media Contact: Sharon Cleary | 0407 990 983
Read the full media release: 2024-03-22 – MR_2024 SA SRC Summit on at Festival Centre tomorrow FINAL
