National Children’s Commissioner Deb Tsobaris launches Hope & Resilience report

Pictured: National Children’s Commissioner Deb Tsobaris

Members of the Young & Resilient Research Centre (Y&R) gathered recently with a broad range of academics, researchers, students, youth advocates, and professionals working in the youth space to celebrate the launch of the "Hope and Resilience: Young Australians' reflections on hope in a complex world" research report.

The research engaged 1,038 12 – 19 year olds from around Australia to identify their hopes and aspirations for the future, primary areas of concern, and what those in power can do to enable this hope to flourish.

National Children's Commissioner Deb Tsobariswas the keynote speaker at the launch event. Addressing the report's authors she said; “The idea that you have made something so abstract so actionable, it’s a much needed component of our work in this country”.

“This generation of young people are navigating enormous change. On one hand we have age restrictions on social media, on the other we have the most punitive measures we have ever seen for young people in this country”.

The report, compiling research conducted with participants aged 12-18, also assesses explores how hope pushes young people towards success, what environments hope flourishes in, and how hopeful young people are in the current state of the world. Interestingly, 78% of those surveyed felt very or somewhat hopeful about being able to live the life they want to live in the future, highlighting the resilience and optimism that drives young people forward.

This reported statistic seems to counter the ever-present sentiment of negativity and hopelessness that seems to permeate within teenagers and young adults.

Pictured: Artwork created for the report youth co-researcher Yehansa Dahanayake interpreting how young Australians express and experience hope

Another interesting piece of data is how technology such as AI and social media influences the hopes of young people, with both issues showing quite a split shown to be a source of increasing, as well of decreasing hope, or both.

The launch event concluded with a panel discussion on the report’s insights between Allanah & Madeline Foundation Chief Operating Officer Scott Gordon, Research Lead Professor Amanda Third, and youth co-researchers Fiona Jiang and Danya Daoud.

Left to right: Scott Gordon, Professor Amanda Third, Fiona Jiang, Danya Daoud

Advocating for youth involvement as a source of hope, Daoud noted her time in Youth Parliament, saying, “It was incredibly empowering to be in the room with key decision-makers, how powerful it is to be able to have the first opportunity that leads you to so many other opportunities”.

Download the "Hope and Resilience: Young Australians' reflections on hope in a complex world" report.