| Description |
The Youth at Risk Alliance Conference belongs to young people and their families.
Ensuring a successful and productive event is one of the key tasks for the alliance in 2007. It aims to once again remind governments and service providers of the importance of implementing evidence based policies and practices.
The Conference potentially includes all sectors that routinely make major contributions to the well being of young people and their families. This clearly includes people working in health, education, child protection, youth justice and housing. It also reminds us that there are many outstanding issues, such as overrepresentation of Indigenous children, young people and their families subject to statutory intervention.
For the human services sector, the Conference aims to:
• Expose workers and researchers to evidence and practice in other fields with the goal of highlighting the interlinked nature of both problems and solutions.
• Provide an opportunity for research outcomes to be delivered by experienced academics.
• Anticipate trends and issues that will be used to set the agenda for meeting the needs of young people at risk.
• Showcase local initiatives that have demonstrated strong success in direct service delivery.
• Promote an awareness of issues facing vulnerable young people and their families.
• Encourage information dissemination and exchange of ideas.
• Provide a forum for building networks in the pursuit of better outcomes for young people.
The Youth at Risk Alliance is pleased to offer you the opportunity to experience warm Queensland hospitality and weather… In addition (as if that wasn’t enough), YARA brings you the chance to hear some of the very best speakers in their fields today. Healthy debate and exchange of ideas will be highly encouraged with a focus on evidence derived from a range of sources and informed by experienced practitioners.
Whilst child abuse and youth crime dominate our media, we are busy looking at the stories behind – the stories. The alliance understands that the problems and challenges facing young people and their families will not be solved by one person, one agency or even one service system. The solutions to issues that place vulnerable young people in harms way are best found through collaboration: government, non-government and community ownership of the future.
What does evidence say about current child protection practices with regard to sexual abuse of boys? What strategies work in policing to minimise offending by young people? How do educational institutions respond to young people with complex needs? Why are Indigenous young people still so grossly over-represented in statutory service systems?
These are just some of the questions that will attract the attention of academics, policy makers, practitioners and hopefully you too... we need your ideas, input and support to ensure that we achieve the best possible solutions.
If you care about the wellbeing of young people and their families, you are encouraged to attend the inaugural Youth at Risk Alliance conference.
|
|
