Engaging Youth in Regional Australia: Stakeholders' Views Report

The Engaging Youth in Regional Australia (EYRA) Study was funded by the Australian Research Council via a 2019-2021 Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. The report on the first stage of the research, conducted in 2019, was released in November. The first stage of the research involved initial visits and stakeholder roundtable discussions in each of the three regional areas of Australia involved in the study – Griffith NSW, Hedland WA, and Port Lincoln SA.

The three locations were chosen because each are experiencing net youth outmigration in the context of increasing economic investment. The study aims to better understand the reasons why young people leave these areas, choose to stay in their hometowns, or return to their hometowns having left for a period of time. This information will be provided to stakeholders when the project has been completed so that it might inform their youth engagement strategies.

Academically, the project will explore the concept of youth engagement and what this means to young people. From the perspective of human geography, which is concerned with the ways in which people and places relate, the project seeks to expand the concept of youth engagement to include the material and affective qualities of place.

The project will take place over four stages: stakeholder discussions, interviews with young people, collaborative filmmaking, and a co-produced exhibition in each town with young people involved in making videos. The exhibition will provide an opportunity for young people and stakeholders to discuss the findings of the project and for the community in each town to learn about the study.