In 2019, the National Youth Commission Australia (NYCA) was launched to conduct a national inquiry into the challenges faced by young people preparing for and seeking work now and into the future. Since its conception, the National Youth Commission has held a range of public hearings, in-person workshops and online consultations to hear directly from a diverse range of young people about their experiences.
In August 2020, the NYCA held a subsequent national online summit for young people to come together from across Australia to discuss ideas for the future and to launch a campaign for a Youth Futures Guarantee – a framework of reforms and initiatives that will support young people meet the great challenges of the future. The summit was a week-long event that included over 1000 attendees, 160 Australian and global speakers and presenters and more than 60 sessions co-hosted by young people in collaboration with professionals across multiple sectors and communities.
To connect with the youth sector and to represent the views young women with disability at the summit, WWDA’s Project and Policy Officer, Heidi La Paglia, attended and spoke at the summit as a representative of the WWDA Youth Network. While not representing WWDA specifically, WWDA’s (at the time, incoming) Project Officer, Vanamali Hermans also attended and presented at the summit.
In this report, Heidi provides a brief overview of the highlights from each day of the conference.