Hughes MP Jenny Ware looks at youth issues Empowering our youth: nurturing tomorrow's leaders
MP JENNY WARE
“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future, Franklin D Roosevelt.
“The future and vitality of our society, our nation, our world is inextricably connected with the growth of our youth. It is our responsibility as adults, whether as parents, grandparents, teachers, aunts, uncles, sports coaches, or mentors in some other way to prepare our younger Australians for the world. This includes their education, employment opportunities, their values and providing them with the confidence, capability and compassion to become our next generation of leaders.
“As a mother of teenage boys, I understand the challenges of the intricate journey involved in fostering the growth of our youth. As they transition from being dependent children to self-reliant adults, parents remain a consistent beacon of guidance and role models they can emulate, Hughes MP Jenny Ware said.
“In the Shire and through the electorate of Hughes, our youth are generally supported by robust home life, encouraging schools together with positive peer and familial influences. However, as happens in all societies, some teenagers make the wrong choices and veer off-course.
“In my role as your local Federal Member, I have spent time recently meeting with and listening to some of these teens and the many people working with them to help to turn their lives around. And lives are being turned around.
“Our community boasts a plethora of dedicated individuals and organisations actively supporting our youth, many of whom disengaged from formal education in the first year of high school. Some, for various reasons were part of the hidden homeless - mostly couch surfing.
“Organisations including the Dunlea Centre (previously known as Boys' Town) in Engadine, Project Youth in Menai, and educational hubs like the St George and Sutherland Community College in Jannali, all work to improve attitudes and behaviour, re-engage our young people with education and then into future study and job readiness.
“These organisations provide (each in their own way) an environment where disengaged teenagers re-engage with society, reflect on their own behaviours and attitudes, and resolve to complete their ROSA, a traineeship, an apprenticeship, a certificate, a diploma, their HSC, a degree.
“Offered a second (and sometimes third and fourth) chance, these younger Australians have made the decision to walk a different path on their journey to adulthood. A path that includes self-belief, self-reliance and self-knowledge.
“It is not only specialised local organisations making a difference. Our NSW Police Force has progressively reshaped its community engagement strategies, adopting a more proactive stance around crime prevention.
“I meet regularly with the two Police Area Commands (PAC) in the Hughes electorate - both Sutherland and Liverpool. It was an honour to attend the Police Medals and Awards Ceremony for the Sutherland Shire PAC to congratulate and meet with the award recipients for this year.
“Sport continues to have a profound and continual influence on young lives. It teaches discipline, team-work, patience, resilience and leadership beyond the more obvious positive physical and mental health benefits.
“It has been a pleasure to recently hand out my Federal Parliamentarian's awards to local sportspeople nominated by their respective clubs for outstanding sportsmanship.
“In our modern era of swift changes, it is important that we reflect and observe that our foundational institutions, be it the police force or educational entities, are adapting to emerging challenges in assisting with some of our troubled or more challenging youth.
“The resilience shown by the younger Australians with whom I have recently met demonstrates a promising path for our future generations and our future society.
Published by The Leader Newspaper on 6 September 2023.