The City of Greater Bendigo’s Youth Council had their Try Before You Buy Open Meeting on Wednesday, September 27th. As part of Youth Fest the Youth Council invited any young person interested in joining the Youth Council to come along to one of their meetings so that they could experience what it might be like to be a Youth Councillor - six people came along. There was a question time as well as breaks where the attendees were given the time to mingle and ask questions of the Youth Councillors.

Deputy Youth Mayor Lilly Correll said, “Not only did this give Youth Councillors the chance to showcase their hard work and skills, but also allowed keen young members of the public to be able to see all the work that we do.”

During the meeting, the Youth Councillors gave individual reports about what they had been up to in the last month. It was fantastic to hear how much they do individually but also what they get up to together in the hopes of bettering our community.

Both Youth Mayor Ryan Peterson and Deputy Youth Mayors Lilly Correll and Remus Brasier presented on the progress of the Youth Council’s 2023 Goals. They were proud to report that out of their 16 goals, all but one had been either started or completed. This is wonderful news for this year’s Youth Councillors.

The Youth Council governs the Youth Action Plan 2023-2024. They co-developed it and got to approve it before it went to Council. As part of their governing this action plan, they requested to receive 6 monthly reports on the implementation of the actions. At this open meeting, they received their first report from support staff. All 24 actions from the plan have been commenced and are in different stages of completion. For a plan that is covering the next 18 months, it was very encouraging to know that such progress has been made.

Throughout the meeting, Youth Councillors discussed and approved 3 items. A Youth Leadership training proposal by the Youth Council’s Experience Working Group, amendments made to the Youth Council Terms of Reference, and the proposed Youth Awards assessment criteria. All three were voted on and approved unanimously.

Deputy Youth Mayor Lilly Correll had this to say regarding the night’s success, “The try before you buy Youth Council meeting gave observers the chance to see that young people are not just the leaders of tomorrow, but leaders of today.”