Janelle Parsons

1:29 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: in favour? That's unanimous. We now have a deputation from Janelle Parsons in regard to the Youth Connect Group. So, welcome Janelle if you can come to the left and then you have up to 15 minutes.

1:42 Janelle Parsons: Thank you. Okay. Good afternoon, Mayor, CEO and councillors. I am Janelle Parsons. Now, I'm a qualified councillor, a two-time published author and a trauma recovery specialist and I'm completing my final year of my psychology degree. I'm also a mother and a survivor of domestic violence and also for childhood violence. I also have founded Rise and Thrive Co. It's a non-for-profit charity on the ground every single day working with youth across our region. I have lived through the system of values and I work now every day to repent. I know what it feels like to feel unseen and unheard and I also know how dangerous it can be for young people who are left without guidance, connection or opportunity. I'm not here for your calls. I don't need it. The work I do speaks for itself. I'm here because the safety and wellbeing of our youth and our community depend on action, not just awareness. We need to do more than just talk. What's happening in Noosa is not isolated. Youth are gathering on Hastings Street every weekend, long weekend and school holidays. They go there because they've got nowhere else to go. E-scooters are being used in assaults, intimidation and to provoke police chases. Now these aren't hiding criminals. They are bored, disconnected and unmonitored youth looking for a sense of belonging in all the wrong places. Now I talk to the police and they do not want to lock these kids up underneath the new laws of adult crime, adult time.

3:42 They want to work with us. Schools are exhausted. Families are overwhelmed. And our young people, well our young people, they feel invisible. Now I've spent months gathering first hand accounts from Sunshine Beach State High where many students are disengaged and teachers are feeling unsupported. Noosa District State High where schools are being forced to choose between funding literacy programs or providing better mental health services to their peers. And Noosa Flesi School where students say to me outright, no one listens to us. QPS officers including Senior Sergeant John Friar have confirmed what we all know. This is a crisis of connection, not of crime. It is about a privilege gap. Kids with everything materialised but they lack in being given accountability. Kids who come from trauma and lack in love and opportunities. I'm here to propose to you a Youth Connect Group, a monthly forum where youth, schools, QPS and community services, we can all come together. Now this is about identifying issues early, sharing our resources, solving problems together and giving our youth a seat at the table.

5:05 But that's just the beginning. We need alcohol free events, youth led events during school holidays like music, sport and workshops. Held away from Hastings Street in safe accessible places like the sports ovals we have near Noosa Junction. We must stop criticising parents and start supporting them with real tools, digital safety, trauma prevention tools and education and emotional regulation strategies. I have already created these resources through Rise and Thrive Co and they can be delivered through schools, libraries and community hubs. All we need is the Minister Council's back. How else are we bringing? So just let me be clear, this is not a passion project. It's professionally built through lived experience and informed movement. I've turned my own journey through generational trauma into being an award winning program writer and facilitator. Being a two time author, my latest book, Roy's Journey to a Happy Home, was published to help young children who can understand and express their traumas.

6:22 I coach basketball teams. I run school programs in our community. I've worked with 98 students in term one already. I started Sunshine High in term three and Noosa District as well. I work alongside QPS and frontline workers. I bring education and experience. And I'm now asking you to match that platform with your support. I'm formally requesting the Council support the establishment of a Youth Connect group, co-facilitated with Rise and Thrive Co. That Council invest in alcohol free youth positive spaces and events during school holidays. And that Rise and Thrive's host parents, parent resources and trauma informed education tools be adopted and distributed across the Noosa region via council, library and networks. You don't need to create the solution, I wrote that for you. What I need from you is access, amplification and action. Because if we don't intervene now, we're going to pay for it later. In violence, disconnection and broken futures. I'm not asking for permission. I'm offering my partnership, my purpose and a plan if that works. You all know someone, either directly in your network, your family or your neighbour, who's experienced this. So I'm asking you to change the story of Noosa's youth together.

7:49 Thank you.

7:52 Mayor Wilkie: Thank you.

7:55 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Thank you. So, councillors, as suggested, we'll do section 8, items 1 through to 8 first. So the first item are the community grants, if we can bring Alton up and Karen.

8:35 Speaker 2: So the first report today we've got is the summary report of all our community grants. So our community grants that we're considering this round are our community project grants, which includes events, includes equipment. Includes infrastructures and programs and projects. The other part we're bringing to the table is our three-year grants, which is our alliance and signature community events. We are recommending a total of $251,533.53 for our community project grants. And for our three-year grants, we're recommending $190,870.11. That then gives us a remaining budget of just over $111,000 to be put forward to our quick response, our individual sports grants, and any emergent grant respondents that we receive throughout the year as well. So this is our first year that we're running the new policy, and our new policy only covers that one year of community grants. So it's only open for one year. We're then looking to open up our quick response grants in September. So we're looking for applications. But just in case some very emergent grants come through and they slip the gap in terms of that one year, we've also got a little bit of remaining budget to cover that.

9:52 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Thank you. Do we have any questions from the floor?

9:56 Councillor Finzel: Yes, thank you, through the chair.