Owning Victoria’s future: Empowering multicultural young people
Multicultural young people shape our culture, contribute to our economy, generate innovation and lead change in communities across Victoria.
But too many are being held back by complex and compounding challenges, including racism and disadvantage, and systems that do not meet their needs, on top of broader pressures faced by all young people.
When multicultural young people can reach their full potential and meaningfully contribute they can have ownership over their futures.
Getting the foundations and investments right for multicultural young people is how we own the future for all of Victoria.
Read our State Election Policy Platform
Election priorities
Renewing the foundations
- Action, and resource the delivery of, all recommendations of Victoria’s Multicultural Review to provide leadership in the face of division and strengthen our communities.
- Fully fund delivery of Our promise, Your future: Victoria’s youth strategy 2022–2027 and resource the creation of a new strategy to increase participation for young people.
- Guarantee 5-year funding agreements for the community sector to provide stability that supports multicultural young people and their families, as recommended by the Productivity Commission and endorsed by Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVic), Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV) and the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS).
Delivering targeted investment
Invest in new models and programs to adapt as our communities grow and change.
- Establish a Multicultural Youth Worker Program that funds 20 multicultural youth workers across Victoria targeted to growth corridors and rural and regional areas.
- Expand the proven Community Support Group model to the Burmese diaspora community in Melbourne’s West and Outer East to reduce youth disengagement and strengthen family and community resilience.
- Fund CMSport and State Sporting Associations (SSA) Pledge Proposal, enabling system-wide, consistent and scalable impact to improve cultural inclusion across Victorian sport.
Grow the reach of programs that are a smart investment for reliable results at scale.
- Commit to an expansion of Le Mana Pasifika Project to build connected communities and a sense of belonging for more Pasifika young people and families.
- Double the Get Active Kids Voucher Program and extend it to arts and music to increase social connection and participation.
- Increase Free Youth Public Transport to young people up to the age of 21 years to reduce barriers to accessing education, training and employment.
- Provide a 3-year fund to scale the Schools Standing Up to Racism program and explore reach into primary schools to support safe, inclusive education journeys for students.
Sustain the impact of the most effective programs for multicultural young people with long-term funding.
- Commit to ongoing funding for Jamma, the successful South Sudanese Community Support Groups that intervene early to empower and support young Victorians from South Sudanese backgrounds and their families.
- Fund 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard for Victorian public schools and provide multi-year funding for the Learning Support Programs that sustain homework clubs to help Victorian students reach their potential.
- Continue the early intervention and prevention work of the Violence Reduction Unit and provide multi-year funding for the Youth Justice Lived Experience Mentoring Project to support young people overrepresented in the youth justice system and reduce youth offending.
- Provide ongoing funding for the Regional Presence Project to continue and expand targeted support to multicultural young people in our regions to ensure they don’t miss out.