NORTHERN Grampians Shire Council can continue its work with the municipality’s young people after Youth Affairs Minister Ryan Smith announced $150,000 in funding.
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Youth and community development officer Amy Rhodes said the money was part of the Engage program and meant council could continue the shire’s Youth Action Council.
“The council was originally funded from 2012 to 2014 through this program, so this money will mean it will continue from 2015 to 2017,” she said.
“We started the Youth Action Council from scratch and through the council we developed a youth strategy.
“With this new round of funding we can further implement the strategy, looking at the problems and solutions we have identified and put it into action.”
Miss Rhodes said Mr Ryan believed it was one of the best youth strategies in Victoria.
“They are really pleased with the quality of what we have produced given we are in a rural area,” she said.
The strategy aims to address issues affecting youth in the shire including boredom, access to education and drug and alcohol abuse.
Miss Rhodes said council would now distribute the strategy in the shire.
“We officially launched it on October 10 and the Youth Action Council will have a planning day in December to work out actions for the next 12 months,” she said.
Cr Wayne Rice said council was pleased to see the strategy completed and welcomed news that the Youth Action Council had received funding to implement key projects and events.
“We know that they’ve undertaken a lot of research and put a great deal of time and effort in to produce what we think is a fairly impressive strategy,” he said.
