RESET Youth Consultation Project

A quote from RESET

“RESET is a dynamic team of young people who want to make a difference.  We have been able to bring together people with very different personalities & strengths to create a group that is enthusiastic about attempting real change for the youth of the City of Melville.”

- Participant.

All About RESET

A new approach to youth research in local government was devised by the City of Melville. Instead of traditional youth consultation or youth needs analysis, where youth workers or researchers would carry out research on the youth population, key stakeholders and the community, to come up with what young people wanted and needed, a peer to peer research model was proposed.

RESET was a consultation with young people like none other.  It was consultation built from the ground up on youth participation processes, where young people were involved every step of the way.  The City of Melville commissioned this consultation in the hope that it would become a model that could be replicated. 

Peer to peer research is not a new phenomenon, but it is new in a local government context with young people.  

Young people can fully participate in decision making by being members of governance boards, committees or project teams.  Sometimes it might be appropriate to also have a separate group of young people who work alongside your board or committee.

More quotes from young people involved in RESET:

 “Hopefully we have acted as a bridge; aiding the local government in perceiving the voices of the youth living within the city and aiding in the provision of resources to young people”.

 “I hope that the City of Melville takes the recommendations seriously.  I hope that ‘youth’ will be taken more seriously.  I hope the wider community will over time change their perceptions of ‘youth’”.

 “I joined RESET because I wanted to be part of something extraordinary.  RESET was a brand new concept and was something that has never been done before.  You would think that when you are trying to help ‘youth’ you would go out and actually speak to them.  Thinking rationally has evidently never really been a strong point of bodies that try to engage ‘youth’”.

For more information please contact Callum Prior, Community Development Officer – Youth, on callum.prior@melville.wa.gov.au or 1300 635 845.