Youth Summit

The Youth Summit is an annual event to amplify the voices of young people. Our annual Youth Summit provides Queensland children and young people a meaningful opportunity to share their views and ideas, based on their lived experiences, directly with leaders and decision-makers across sectors. By placing lived experience at the centre, the summit aims to dive positive change in the systems and services that impact the safety and wellbeing of young Queenslanders and their families.

Each speaker presents their advocacy piece on stage to an audience of decision- and policy- makers. These presentations include ideas for positive change were presented with the aim of improving the lives of children, young people, their families and communities.

Speakers from our last two summits have created opportunities to advocate for systems change across a range of sectors including health, education, disability, domestic and family violence, child protection, and more, following their Summit presentations. They’re continuing to have an impact and shape the way sector professionals think about youth participation, advocacy and accountability.

Speech topics

Speech topic speaker sessions are based grounded in on the ARACY Nest Wellbeing Framework: 

• Valued, loved and safe – Ensuring that children feel secure, supported, and protected from harm in their family, community, and broader environment.
• Healthy – Promoting physical, mental, and emotional health through access to healthcare, nutrition, and opportunities for physical activity.
• Learning – Supporting access to quality education, skill development, and lifelong learning to enable children to reach their full potential.
• Participating – Encouraging children to actively engage in decisions that affect them, have their voices heard, and are involved in family, community, civic, and cultural life.
• Material basics – Ensuring children and families have access to essentials like housing, food, clothing, and financial security to support wellbeing.
• Identity and culture – Helping children develop self-confidence, resilience, and a strong cultural identity, including recognition and support for First Nations children’s connection to culture and community.

During the summit, speakers advocate for advancements in each of these domains to enhance the lives of Queensland’s children, youth, families, and communities.

More on the NEST framework

This Framework recognises that childhood development, and family and community wellbeing form part of an interconnected system around each Queensland child. It also recognises that it is not possible to separate the wellbeing of a child from the wellbeing of their family and community. These domains work together to create a holistic approach to child wellbeing, recognising that no single factor alone determines positive outcomes for children.