Diversity and Youth Participation

For one of my Online Tasks in my Diploma of Youth Work at Scripture Union QLD we were given the task of reading this blog post (link here) by Michael Grose and an article on 'Young people in multicultural Australia' by a woman named Louise Olliff, surrounding the topic of 'Diversity and Youth Participation'.
The blog post covered a number of predictions of 'emerging trends' that may arise for kids from this year on. With the way in which technology has advanced, ideologies have changed and the way in which the average life has increasingly become more complex in the past decade, I'd say that a number of these predictions of trends may just become true.

One of these trends I do see happening is sleep deprivation, though I do not think that it will necessarily replace cyber-bullying as the biggest threat to young people's well-being. The pressure on young people to exceed in their education, sport, social-life and status in society and culture is becoming more important. With these factors in mind, young people would be generally feeling more stressed and this tends to affect their well-being, particularly their sleep.
I still think that cyber-bullying will not become a lesser threat, as technology is becoming more advanced, accessing information has never been easier (e.g.. social networking websites like Facebook or Twitter) and communication tools such as the internet, mobiles and computers are in the hands of almost every young person.

Sleep deprivation is a difficult issue to combat, particularly for an individual or group who is outside of a child or children's care. It is possible that some guardians or parents can be so focused on encouraging their child to succeed in every area of their life that they overlook some important issues, such as their well-being. Particularly children who may be attending at a top-end private school or those involved with many extra-curricula activities (sport is a big one), the pressure to exceed may be quite higher than children who come from a low-economic backgrounds.

If it were up to me to help ensure that the young people within these social groups have an opportunity to share their opinions on this issue, I would be ensuring that young people know how important well-being is. This could be achieved by running sessions with young people, making resources on health and well-being available and encouraging them that well-being is an important factor of life.
To make sure that a young person's voice is not just allowed to speak, but is heard, I would be involving third parties such as their educators or parents/guardians, and making sure that each young person's voice is heard and valued. Sharing the sessions and resources with the third-parties would also be helpful in this.