What was the background?
Organisation: Mission Australia – Taree (Communities for Children: Mid Coast 4 Kids)
Location: Taree, NSW
Focus: Understanding local young people’s experiences to inform planning and service delivery
Mission Australia’s Taree service works closely with children, young people and families across the Mid Coast region. To support effective planning and strengthen its understanding of local young people’s needs, the service sought to gather robust, locally relevant data directly from young people themselves.
Participation in the Mission Australia Youth Survey offered an opportunity to elevate young people’s voices while contributing to a nationally recognised evidence base on youth wellbeing, challenges and aspirations.
What was the issue?
The Taree service was keen to collect Youth Survey responses from local young people to better understand the issues they were facing and to inform future planning.
Several challenges emerged:
- Engagement with local high schools was difficult, as the Youth Survey was not always seen as a priority within busy school environments.
- Shortly after the survey opened, significant flooding affected the local area, resulting in school closures and placing additional strain on the community.
- The survey required time for completion, meaning young people needed encouragement and support to participate.
These factors required the service to adapt its engagement approach and find alternative ways to reach young people directly.
What approach was taken?
Using a proactive, relationship-based approach, Mission Australia Taree focused on meeting young people where they already were and clearly explaining why their participation mattered.
Key elements of the approach included:
- Direct engagement with young people: Rather than relying solely on schools to facilitate participation, staff focused on speaking directly with young people, explaining the purpose of the survey and the importance of hearing their voices.
- Leveraging community events: The service set up a stall at a local Careers Expo attended by large numbers of high school students, creating an opportunity to reach many young people in one setting.
- Accessible survey completion: QR codes linked to the Youth Survey were displayed prominently, and tablets were available for students without phones.
- Incentives and encouragement: Small incentives (like chocolate) helped motivate participation, while staff remained available to answer questions and support completion.
- Targeted follow up: In the final week of the survey, the service engaged a local high school to allow lunchtime promotion and on the spot completion, drawing on existing relationships with school staff.
What were the results?
The majority of survey responses were collected through direct engagement at the Careers Expo, with additional responses secured through targeted school engagement toward the end of the survey period.
In total, Mission Australia Taree successfully gathered 115 Youth Survey responses, ensuring strong local representation from young people in the area.
The responses have contributed to:
- A clearer understanding of the challenges facing local young people
- Improved insight to inform service planning and future engagement
- Strengthened confidence that young people’s voices are being heard and valued
What were the benefits of participating?
Participation in the Youth Survey delivered benefits beyond the data collected:
- Youth voice: Young people appreciated being given the opportunity to share their experiences and perspectives.
- Local insight: The service gained locally grounded data to complement frontline observations and anecdotal evidence.
- Relationship building: Engagement activities strengthened connections with young people and local schools.
Several students expressed appreciation for being asked to participate, noting that it felt meaningful to have their views captured.
Key takeaways
Mission Australia Taree’s experience demonstrates that local services can successfully use the Youth Survey to amplify young people’s voices, even in challenging circumstances.
By taking a flexible, youth centred approach and engaging young people directly, the service ensured that local experiences were captured and contributed to a broader national picture of youth wellbeing.