Future assured for youth programs

Published on 22 January 2025

Glenelg Shire Council’s Youth Development Team delivers a host of great programs and activities for young people throughout the shire, and that work has now received a major boost.

The team was successful in receiving grants from the Victorian Government’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) for the FReeZA and Engage! programs.

It means that over the next three years, the team will receive about $100,000 annually to run the two programs.

Council has been a long-term recipient of both FReeZA and Engage! funding, which contributes to the cost of Youth Development Services across the Shire for young people between the ages of 12-25 years.

Glenelg Shire Mayor Karen Stephens welcomed the funding.

“Our Youth Development Team do a great job delivering relevant programs to young people right across our shire,” she said.

“It’s more important than ever that youth in a rural shire such as ours have access to these sorts of opportunities and it is great to see their future has been assured for the next three years.”

The FReeZA program supports youth led planning, development, and delivery of safe events within arts and music for young people living in the shire, including youth participation and engagement in iconic community events, professional and personal skill development in music and the arts, networking opportunities for young people to engage with industry partners and potential career pathways.

Engage! will funds projects that empower young people to participate in activities that promote self and professional development to achieve their goals. It also celebrates the contributions of young people to the project and local community.

Examples of its programs include the YumCha program, which engages young people identifying as LGBTQIA+, providing social connection, community involvement, awareness and advocacy, the Youth Live4Life Glenelg program, which is a rural mental health and suicide prevention program that runs in all four secondary schools in the shire, the ReEngage! Program which assists young people at the Portland Secondary College Re-Engagement School and young people experiencing high levels of disadvantage to participate in their community in different and meaningful ways, and the School Holiday Program, which provides young people free, fun, and unique school holiday activities across the shire and runs every school holidays.