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Your voice, story, future: helping young people feel valued

A case study

Prepared by The Resilience Canopy Team
Published 30 October 2025

summary

The strength of The Resilience Canopy’s Six-Step Future Ready Communities Model is having a guiding framework for the discussion, ideation and delivery of a more resilient future that is community led.

With young people across the country wanting their voices to be heard and a chance to advocate for their own futures, the empowering Resilience Canopy process holds major appeal, as evidenced by these two community youth groups: Macleay Youth Rising in New South Wales, and Gympie Youth in Queensland.

Snapshot

under

rEPRESENTED

One of the biggest community sectors who have actions ‘done to and for them’ are young people. Source

50%

iNCREASE

The increase in mental health disorders among young people in 15 years. In 2020-2022, 38.8% of people aged 16–24 years had a 12-month mental disorder. The overall national figure is 21.5% or 4.3 million people. Source

55

%

The secondary school students who reported an at-risk learning mindset (with high anxiety, disengagement, or both) in 2024. Only 18% reported that they were ‘ready to learn’ (with low anxiety and low disengagement). Source

Strong comms &

Networks

Nearly half (47.2%) of primary school students reported that they were often or always able to talk to others. Nearly half (49.0%) of secondary school students reported always being good at keeping friends, and a further 33.8% were often able to do this. Source

The challenges

A group of committed community members who didn’t previously know each other attended The Resilience Canopy Practitioner Training in Gladstone, just outside of Kempsey NSW, in November 2024 to identify community challenges and solutions.

Quickly recognising their shared values and aspirations, the group worked through the examples and exercises with an infectious energy and passion.

During these respectful, productive sessions, youth-specific priorities were shortlisted, such as addressing mental health concerns, promoting youth engagement, and fostering a healthy community culture to empower youth to stay in the area.

By the end of the two days, they had the genesis of a brand-new community group, motivation, and the opportunity to apply for Activation Grants.

The challenges

Meanwhile, in Gympie QLD, a similar shared motivation and recognised opportunity to give young people a voice motivated Peter, a Resilience Canopy Practitioner and Community Development staff member at Gympie Council.

The initial research and community discussion in Gympie identified that young people are impacted by housing stress, rising living costs, limited health services – particularly mental health – and a lack of recreation and social gathering spaces. All these gaps reinforce the disconnection young people feel from the community.

The Actions

With actions in mind, the two communities set about inspiring conversations, building trust, and motivating young people to get involved.

Within five months of the Gladstone training, four Kempsey practitioners had formed Macleay Youth Rising as a collaborative community group, launching with a logo and TikTok channel!  

Lacey is a young staff member at Kempsey Shire Council who is part of the core group of practitioners committed to involving Kempsey’s youth (aged 8-25) in this work.  

“We deserve to be involved in what's happening in our hometown, and to have reasons to stay,” said Lacey.

The Actions

For both groups, reaching young people where they are already gathering has been critical in these early stages.  

“Food, familiar faces, and trusted practitioners are essential to building trust with young people, particularly those from priority groups,” said Peter in Gympie.  

This led to the Gympie Youth community group targeting Youth Week 2025 as an important launch point. In the lead up to the event, meetings were held with school and service providers to introduce the project.  
‍
The result: a pop-up stall throughout Youth Week, which engaged young people with surveys, feedback forms and collaborative artwork, helping them connect and confirm the strengths and worries that are on their mind. And a music event, partly funded by a Resilience Canopy Activation Grant, that drew impressive crowds.

Peter noted that, like anyone attending a training or meeting, young people want to know ‘what’s in it for them’. As such, the work has focused on highlighting purpose, explaining outcomes and helping young people see that being involved could benefit them or strengthen their future. 

Macleay Youth Rising is also empowering young people – by giving them a voice to advocate for their needs, influence decision making, and drive positive change...  

‍Use Your Voice, Share Your Story – Build Your Future.

This simple and powerful call to action, developed by the team in the early stages of The Resilience Canopy model, has helped maintain focus and guide engagement activities.

The Youth Laneway Festival, coordinated by the local council, provides safe, accessible entertainment, outlets for creativity and enterprise, and access to services.

It was the ideal event for Macleay Youth Rising to boost conversations and engagement. With a bright welcoming stall and three vintage phones recording messages, young people were encouraged to use their voice to answer three important questions:  

The Actions

- What is one thing you wish the community knew about young people?
- What would help you feel more confident to share your story with others?  
- If we could provide one thing to support young people’s future what would it be?

These engagement activities have enabled both groups to build a deep understanding of the stories, influences and experiences of the young people in their areas.

The Macleay Youth Rising team continue to find novel ways of getting young people involved. They used some of the activation grant fund to print stickers with a QR code linking back to the TikTok channel.

Impacts: what worked?

We equip communities to build a plan of priorities, but by design, we are also helping them build C.R.E.W. - Connection, Respect, Empowerment, Wisdom - the foundations of a thriving culture.

Here's how Kempsey and Gympie are enacting these principles so far...

Impacts

  • Connection
    For both groups, the immediate challenge and opportunity ahead is to keep young people involved in the engagement and development of their community’s Resilience Plans.

    For Peter in Gympie, as part of the Council staff, the art of stepping back and handing ownership to young people is contrary to so much of the community development work – yet infinitely more sustainable!  

    Having engaged with members of the Student Representative Councils from local schools and the Youth Engagement Committee from Headspace, the project has identified people who want to do more than go to school and go home.  

    “They are interested in being involved and making a difference,” Peter said.

    As well as creating meaningful connections with young people, there are also the connections between community members, council, local organisations, and The Resilience Canopy. 

The support of Council, agency staff and program partners made it possible in Kempsey and Gympie to capture the data, build stakeholder profiles and apply The Resilience Canopy training.

The program model in Kempsey, designed in partnership with Kempsey Shire Council and funding partner Essential Energy, is supported by Practitioners who have undertaken The Resilience Canopy training, and a regional coordinator to coordinate program delivery.  

“We are all really committed to making this project work, but we wear multiple hats in this community and unlike other volunteer community groups, we are adding this work to our professional roles where we work with children and families in Kempsey,” says Anika from the Macleay Youth Rising team.

“Having a coordinator to help guide us, keep us focused on the identified need to create a voice for young people and remind us that our intent isn’t to try and fix all the issues but give them more agency in their futures, has been really valuable.”

Impacts

  • Respect
    ‍
    The very nature of Kempsey and Gympie’s efforts to engage youth and allow their voices to be heard is built around respect. But this is certainly aided when different stakeholders throw their support behind the projects and initiatives.  

    Kempsey currently has one of the youngest Mayors in NSW leading the Council and advocating for education, experience and collaboration to raise young people up the decision ladder.

    In announcing the successful Activation Grant for Macleay Youth Rising, Mayor Kinne Ring captured the essence of C.R.E.W:

"Our community works best when people work together and when we empower people and community groups to do the work and share their knowledge."

Building this respect at every level of a community is paramount to success, especially when it comes to engaging young people, some of whom feel marginalised and not respected within the current community culture.

Impacts

  • Empowerment

    A significant number of funded organisations, agency support and targeted programs are operating in the Kempsey Shire aiming to help young people thrive.  

    With one of the largest and highest use Country University Centres in Australia and a dedicated vocational college to support young people who may not otherwise complete school, education services are a focus for the area.  

But like Gympie, these agencies and skilled workers often deliver programs to young people, not with them, especially those most vulnerable.

Both Canopy Communities are exploring ways to use the Six Step Model, the Canopy House resources, and connections with fellow community members to establish an enduring, empowering process that delivers sustained and ongoing voices for the young people in their communities.  The program model in Kempsey, designed in partnership with Kempsey Shire Council and funding partner Essential Energy, is supported by Practitioners who have undertaken The Resilience Canopy training, and a regional coordinator to coordinate program delivery.  

Impacts

  • Wisdom
    ‍
    The Gympie team acknowledges that, while the Deep Dive sessions involve ongoing conversations, surveys and other forms of engagement to gather more youth voices, maintaining that momentum through the implementation stage will be important.

    An added challenge of working with young people as a cohort is that they don’t stay stagnant! They don’t stay in the age bracket and if they have confidence, opportunity and desire, are likely to move away from the geographic area.  

Recognising a need to give young people a voice, tailoring the proven Six-Step Model and reaching the right people might seem like a streamlined approach. But as with anything involving community, it’s rarely a straight-line journey. This is wisdom, personified.  

The resources provided by The Resilience Canopy, particularly the Practitioner Training Handbook and Playbook, have also been vital tools in navigating the fluctuations of the work and building wisdom in these communities.  

According to Peter, a real strength is “being able to refresh your understanding of the steps in the process, particularly in the midst of the Deep Dive.”

Impacts: what worked?

Want to know more about C.r.e.w.?

What characteristics does a resilient Canopy Community have in common? Connection, respect, empowerment, and wisdom, also known as C.R.E.W.. Find out more on our Program page

Looking ahead...

As both communities move into the Field of Opportunities stage of The Resilience Canopy program and begin to develop their Resilience Plans, the trust that has been built with young people will help them have a meaningful say in their community’s resilience building ideas and actions.

But what will that future look like? Perhaps it will entail using the Gympie Resilience Plan as the cornerstone of a collaborative Council Youth Engagement Policy to help their young people flourish.

For Macleay Youth Rising, their vision is to create a standalone incorporated youth-led group who continue sharing their story and expectations for the future with all levels of government.

Whatever form these visions end up taking, the skills, resources and partnerships of The Resilience Canopy will continue to be there to help guide this important work and help young people have a say in the future of their communities.

As Anika from Macleay Youth Rising sums up brilliantly:

“The future belongs to the young people. They are our future. I’m passionate about elevating their voice, helping them be heard and sharing their creative ideas.”