By Tate Papworth
What’s your connection with Brimbank?
I work at The Youth Junction, an organisation offering a range of support services to disadvantaged young people aged between 12-25 years. Approximately 50 per cent of those residing in the Brimbank municipality.
What do you like best about the area?
Brimbank is really vibrant and constantly evolving. The richness of culture, development of infrastructure, particularly around the train station area, allows for easy access to Sunshine.
What could be improved?
There are approximately 36,671 young people aged 12-24 years residing in the City of Brimbank. However, the relatively small population of young people involved in anti-social behaviour and criminal activity is unfortunately often highlighted and gives a very negative impression of young people. We continue to see poverty and trauma in the lives of young people, despite Brimbank enjoying gentrification, which is why we constantly improve our wraparound support services to offer relief to young people facing hardship and disadvantage.
Tell us about your role at Youth Junction?
I am the communications and marketing co-ordinator. I’m responsible for the communications, partnerships and public relations engagement along with the effective management and awareness of our brand and profile. I co-ordinate our online presence through social media, community engagement and effective marketing strategies. I love watching the young people’s journey as they engage in our services and I am determined to capture their highlights and achievements as these good news stories build confidence in the community.
Any exciting projects on the go?
We are working towards updating some significant spaces within the Visy Cares Hub, including a refurbished kitchen and barista space called Homebase and a revamped interactive space right in the heart of the Hub, which will include digital screens, state-of-the-art furniture, plug-in capabilities for electronic devices, which are all designed to offer a contemporary multifunctional educational space for young people.
When will that open?
To launch our new spaces, we’re organising an event on Monday, August 12 from 11am-12.30pm at the Visy Cares Hub. This event will align with the International Youth Day with the focus on transforming education among other activities on that day.
