Past Events
Future Right Now
Tuesday 14 & Wednesday 15 July
Australian Museum and Whitlam Institute
Y&R's New Possibilities project hosted a major event in collaboration with the Australia Museum and Whitlam Institute. Entitled Future Right Now: Young people, climate action and a vibrant democracy, the event showcased the work of the New Possibilities project, which for nearly seven years, has documented the youth climate movement and what it means for Australian democracy.
2168 Children's Parliament Research, Advocacy and Policy workshop
Tuesday, 24 March
Heckenberg Community Centre
Young Parliamentarians in Liverpool were invited to step into the role of researchers and advocates as part of this year’s 2168 Children’s Parliament program, tackling issues like online safety and cyberbullying. Read more
Hope and Resilience report launch
Wednesday, 25 February
Whitlam Institute
Academics, researchers, students, youth advocates, and professionals working in the youth space gathered to hear National Children's Commissioner Deb Tsobaris officially launch the Hope and Resilience: Young Australians' reflections on hope in a complex world research report. Read more
Read the report [[button]]
Research Week 2025: How can youth research help change the world?
Monday, 25 August
Western Sydney Univesrity Parramatta City Campus
Y&R's 2025 Research Week event was held in two parts. The first part included an intergenerational panel to launch the “Youth Studies in Australia and the Climate Crisis: Time for Action”, a special issue of the Journal of Applied Youth Studies, with authors reflecting on how young people and partners shaped their research. In the second part, participants took part in a hand-on workshop with MAPIMO - Y&R's open-access emotion mapping tool - to explore how people experience place.
Climate Action Week
Saturday, 15 March
Phive Parramatta
As part of Climate Action Week Sydney Y&R's New Possibilities team joined forces with Carmel Reyes, Head of Climate Action and Sustainability at Powerhouse Parramatta to co-host a vibrant, interactive event in Parramatta Square. The event showcased the work of over fifty Western Sydney University Design students, including visual displays and student led poster-making workshops, which saw youth climate advocates and activists, artists, designers and the Western Sydney community come together to visually express the role of youth climate action in achieving climate justice.
Watch the video [[button]]
Youth Digital Health and Online Platforms book launch
Tuesday, 4 February
Onilne
Y&R PhD graduate and CASE social sciences specialist Martyna Gliniecka launched and discussed her book Youth Digital Health and Online Platforms - Dialogue with Peers on Reddit with Professor Philippa Collin and Emeritus Professor Bob Hodge.
What Matters? report launch
Wednesday, 12 February
Whitlam Institute
The launch of the report “What Matters to Young Australians Through Turbulent Times?“ took place at the Whitlam Institute. The report is an analysis of 22,531 entries of young people to the What Matters? writing competition between 2019 and 2024. Speakers at the event included National Children's Commissioner, Anne Holland.
Read the report [[button]]
Protecting Children Online: Insights from children and young people webinar
Tuesday, 12 November
Online
Y&R and Save the Children hosted a webinar entitled "Protecting Children Online: Insights from children and young people". This was a unique opportunity to hear the insights of over 600 children and young people aged 8-18 years from seven countries around the world (Australia, Cambodia, Colombia, Finland, Kenya, Philippines, and South Africa) to understand how they experience and respond to interactions with unknown people online. Two webinars were held: the first with young people from the Philippines and the second with young people from Kenya.
Watch webinar 2 [[button]]
Research Handbook for the Sociology of Youth book launch
Tuesday, 9 July
Online
This virtual book launch introduced the brand new Research Handbook on the Sociology of Youth, a new resource for researchers, teachers, policy-makers, practitioners and students around the world. This reflective, critical and accessible Research Handbook brings together information from the Global North and South to examine the social, political, cultural and ecological processes that inform what it means to be young. This book contains insights to the theoretical, methodological and conceptual approaches in the field, commentaries from young people across the world, and insights into how policy-makers and professionals can apply research findings in practice. Attendance was online by registration only.
ICA 2024 Preconference: Amplifying Youth Participation: Engaging Children and Young People in Media and Communications
Thursday, 20 June
Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre
In the lead up to the 74th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, 'Communication and Global Human Rights', the Young and Resilient Research Centre hosted a preconference to facilitate dynamic and thought-provoking conversations that highlight the potential of children’s and adolescents’ involvement in media and communications research. Through engaging discussions, interactive workshops, and insightful presentations, attendees heard from researchers, practitioners, children and young people to explore the principles behind meaningful child participation, and the practical skills and strategies required to put this into action. Together we explored the transformative power of child-centred research to help drive positive social change.
Protecting Children and Youth from Digital Harm symposium
Tuesday, 6 February
Online
How can digital harm issues for children and young people be identified and tackled? This symposium brought together governmental figures, civil society representatives, industry leaders, and young voices from around the world to discover both online and offline solutions. From discussions on digital empowerment to exploring existing protective measures and the evolving roles of technology and government, the Symposium covered a broad spectrum of topics. Attendees gained insights from USAID's Digital Youth Council members, who offered invaluable perspectives from the young people themselves.
Youth Co-Research Masterclasses
Tuesday 14, Tuesday 21 and Tuesday 28 November
Delivered in collaboration with the Centre for Multicultural Youth, this masterclass equipped researchers with an applied understanding of how to work with young people as collaborative researchers. Attendees were taken through the fundamentals of co-research, case studies, information and guidance, and tools and resources, part of Y&R's Youth Co-research Toolkit supported by the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies. Attendees also had the opportunity to listen to the experiences of researchers, youth practitioners and young people, ask questions, and take part in hands-on activities.
Enhancing Digital Participation Amongst Refugee and Migrant Background Youth showcase and Workshop
Thursday, 31 August
What is the role of digital participation for the work, study and wellbeing of young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds? How can organisations, governments and industry better engage with young people to support their digital participation? This hybrid showcase presented findings from Enhancing Digital Participation Amongst Refugee and Migrant Background Youth, a VicHealth-funded collaborative project between Deakin University, Western Sydney University and the Centre for Multicultural Youth.
Powerhouse Late: Climate
Thursday, 27 July
Powerhouse Museum
What happens when you take the visual activism commonly found on the streets of the climate protest into the formal space of the museum? Powerhouse Late: Climate featured student and community-led workshops that navigate the role of visual communication and storytelling in responding to climate change.
Enacting bespoke models of care: Examining how young people support their friends through tough times.
Tuesday, 25 July
Help-seeking activities are often framed in terms of the formalised services that lead young people into pathways of care. In this talk, Benjamin challenged attendees to look beyond these formal parameters to the different, informal methods that young people use to help each other through tough times.
Storytelling for impact: Measuring and evaluating with young people
Monday, 10 July
How do we involve young people meaningfully? How do we measure and evaluate the work we do with young people? This event, led by the Young and Resilient Research Centre, aimed to bring together practitioners, service providers, young people and academics to explore these questions.
The Climate Crisis and Young People's Health and Well-Being
25 June – 1 July
Climate change is increasingly impacting our lives in more than one way. Y&R researchers took part in the ISA World Congress for Sociology in a session on Young People, Resistance and Crisis: Mental Health and Climate to discuss how young people are configuring, mobilising and making community responses to crisis of mental health and climate change.
Youth Engagement in Health Research Guidebook launch
Tuesday, 28 March
Online
There is growing evidence that health research on issues affecting young people is better when young people are engaged across the research phases. This special and interactive webinar was hosted by Professor Philippa Collin (from Durham in the UK), Research Officer Mia Cox, and a panel of WH&Y Commissioners. The team introduced a suite of resources aimed at guiding researchers on how best to engage and collaborate with young people in ways that are respectful, inclusive, aware, and power-neutral.
Read the guidebook [[button]]
Beyond Borders: Global Perspectives on Digital Media and Children
Thursday, 1 December
How do children from different cultures and countries use screens for education, social connection, and entertainment? What can we learn from what other communities are doing to protect and advocate for children? Y&R joined our friends at the Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development for this virtual webinar, where an international panel of experts discussed and examined the latest trends in youth media habits, research, policies and parenting perspectives from around the world.
Youth and money matters: Precarity, wellbeing and digital media
Monday, 28 November
Issues related to precarity and economic insecurity are central concerns for many sociologists studying the lives of young people. However, direct discussions of money and its use and meaning in everyday life remain rare in youth sociology. Y&R joined our friends at the Australian Sociological Association (TASA) Sociology of Thematic Group for a full-day symposium. The event brought established and emerging scholars, including Young & Resilient's Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow, Dr Benjamin Hanckel, together with speakers from industry and stakeholder organisations to explore issues related to money and youth.
AAAH 2022 Youth Health Conference
7 – 9 November
What are the health needs of young people and what services and support do they require? Do health services cater for diverse communities and are we listening to young people enough? The Australian Association for Adolescence Health (AAAH) hosted the 2022 Youth Health Conference to answer these questions and more.
The Rhetorics of Artificial Intelligence symposium
Thursday, 3 November
The Rhetorics of Artificial Intelligence was a one-day symposium designed to explore the rhetoric of public discourses surrounding AI, and whether AI recognises and can employ rhetoric, broadly conceived. What do our ongoing conversations concerning AI reveal about larger social and political anxieties and phenomena? To what extent and in what ways will AI technologies transform language and meaning making in the world? Will AI ever emulate human modes of rhetorical interaction? As AI becomes a ubiquitous aspect of our everyday experience, such questions become more urgent and necessary. Members of Young & Resilient shared their perspectives.
Research Week 2022: Navigating Collaborative Research: Technology & Impact for Young People
Monday, 31 October
Online
The Young and Resilient Research Centre hosted an online seminar to celebrate research, as a part of Research Week 2022 at Western Sydney University. A panel of researchers, service providers and young people shared their experiences in producing and participating in impactful research that results in real world change.
‘You are much more than just data’ – meaningful roles for young people in research
Monday, 15 August
Our team of young researchers from the Centre for Multicultural Youth and (not so young) researchers from the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies launched our new Youth Co-Research Toolkit – a resource for young people who want to know more about the world of research, and for researchers who want to work with young people in meaningful and relevant ways.
Read the toolkit [[button]]