By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
STATE Shadow Minister for Youth Steph Ryan was a welcome guest in Narre Warren on Thursday when she visited the Casey Youth Hub.
Ms Ryan, Deputy Leader of The Nationals, was shown the hub and the Narre Warren Youth Information Centre by City of Casey Manager Youth and Family Collette McMahon, Director Community Services Greg Wood and Acting Co-ordinator for Youth Services Dani West.
The centre was opened roughly a year ago and is available for all youths, five days a week, offering a range of programs and activities including youth counselling, youth programs, holiday programs and provides a place for young people to drop in and seek out information and advice.
Ms Ryan also visited Youth Works in Narre Warren, where she was told of complications with Pacific Islander youths often not being eligible for Australian counselling services.
“I’m working my way around the state and trying to get a better sense of the issues facing young people,” she said.
“When we were here a couple of months ago as part of Shadow Cabinet, the City of Casey gave us a bit of a briefing and one of the things they all spoke about was the challenges facing young people.
“I guess, from my perspective, and I’ve been around at Youthworks this morning as well, I think some of the issues that they’ve highlighted facing specifically the Pacific Islander population, I was not aware of.
“And there are obviously some very serious challenges there that they’re not eligible for a number of support services because they have migrated through New Zealand so technically they’re New Zealand citizens which makes them ineligible for a lot of those programs.
“And Youthworks say they are over-represented in the youth justice system.”
Ms Ryan said one of the key reasons for her Narre Warren visit was to look at ways to curb Casey’s youth unemployment.
“You’ve got transport problems, there’s the fact there isn’t a whole lot of industry here and so young people have to travel to find jobs,” she said.
“Access to education, all of those things contribute to a bigger problem which is more complex to address.”
The Casey Youth Hub helps provide access to trains, buses and Fountain Gate Shopping Centre.
