Page 3369 - Week 09 - Thursday, 22 August 2019
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activities and opportunities to young people in the places and ways that best meet their needs. I am pleased to add that the ACT government has been working across many areas to meet the current and emerging needs of young people in Canberra that overlap and align with the recommendations of the report.
As members will be aware, considerable work has been done and continues to be done to better care for and protect children and young people in the territory. The establishment of the office for mental health and wellbeing is a major achievement and will play an important role in improving cross-sectoral collaboration and service integration to promote mental health and wellbeing in the territory, which will help young Canberrans.
The consultation process on the road map for mental health of Canberra children and young people has just commenced, and I encourage everyone, including the young people in the chamber here today, the members of the Youth Advisory Council, to participate in that process run by the office for mental health and wellbeing.
The ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agreement 2019-28 sets the long-term direction for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs in the ACT. The agreement focuses on the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to ensure that they have equity in health and wellbeing outcomes. A focus of the agreement is supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people to grow up safely with their families and in their communities. The ACT government has committed to implementing the initiatives to address the Our Booris, Our Way review recommendations when the final report is available. This is in line with one of the Youth Assembly recommendations.
The ACT government has also committed $480,000 in a joint project with the Youth Coalition of the ACT and three youth services, with a focus on defining service needs and the future service design for an optimal youth at-risk services system. This work seeks to develop a service system that supports children and young people who are at risk of homelessness, youth justice or child protection intervention.
Today I have outlined only a few of the initiatives that support the 29 recommendations. There are many more detailed in the report and response. I encourage members to read both the report and the ACT government response. Our focus will now turn to delivering on these recommendations, ensuring that we continue to respond to the various needs of young people, as well as welcoming and encouraging their participation in all aspects of community life.
I thank the members of the ACT Youth Advisory Council for their diligence in preparing this report. Again, I acknowledge the co-chairs of the advisory council and other members that are here today, as well as their support team from the youth interact area in the Community Services Directorate, who do an incredible job giving voice to young people and enabling young people to have a voice in our community.
I commend to the Assembly the ACT Youth Assembly report and the ACT government response to the report.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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