Brisbane youth contribute to social change
Brisbane, 29 Sep 2009
Members of the Kenmore junior youth group at the showcase
More than 400 people attended a Brisbane “junior youth showcase” that demonstrated how local young people are serving their community and contributing to social change.
Upon entering the venue at the Marymac Community Centre, the audience passed through a “transformation tunnel” designed to help them look at the world through the eyes of youth between the ages of 11 and 15 years.
The audience viewed performances, games and audio-visual displays which showed what more than 100 “junior youth” have learned through an empowerment project conducted in 16 groups throughout Brisbane. The showcase was held on 13 September 2009.
Junior youth not only performed at the event but also took care of the ushering, waiting on tables, backstage management, minding children and cleaning up.
The Baha’i-inspired junior youth project in Brisbane is open to followers of all faiths and backgrounds and works on developing the participants’ moral capabilities, talents and capacities for service.
The program assists the participants improve their abilities to communicate their views on important concepts via the spoken and written word and through the arts.
The facilitators of the program, called “animators”, are all youth.
The junior youth groups in Brisbane communicate with and learn from equivalent groups throughout Australia and overseas.
Spokeperson Saphira Rameshfar said that by expanding their perspective to an international scale, the junior youth explore the lives of people their own age around the world and learn about their challenges.
“They learn that change in the world starts at the grass roots,” Miss Rameshfar said.
“They put what they are learning into action and contribute service projects to their communities,” she said.
“They develop their personal qualities such as patience and perseverance in order to see their contribution to society through to fruition.
"Examples include junior youth beautifying their neighbourhoods, sharing skills and running free artistic workshops for their communities and visiting the elderly.”