Modified on April 30th, 2019. Posted in Projects

Parliament of Youth

The next Parliament of Youth on Sustainability, where young people get to have a say about how Canberra can become more sustainable, will run in 2020. We will recruit for a Project Officer later in the year.

SEE-Change with the support of numerous volunteers has run five Parliament of Youths.

In 2018, 220 students from 20 ACT schools participated in the Parliament at the ANU. Their challenge was to come up with one action that could make Canberra more sustainable.

2018 Parliament of Youth on Sustainability

Funding was not available in 2019 – refer to article in RIOTACT.

WHAT

The Parliament of Youth on Sustainability is the chance for ACT students from kindergarten to year 12 to have their say about how to make Canberra a sustainable city.

Each school may enter up to three teams in each of the year group categories: K-Y3 (6 team members), Y4-Y6 (6 team members), Y7-Y9 (3 team members) and Y10-Y12 (2 team members). Each team prepares a one-page Green Paper outlining their proposal for action and a 5 minute presentation about their proposal for delivery at the Parliament. You can download an information flyer here.

WATCH

The 2017 Parliament of Youth on Sustainability video (1:38) below for a quick run-down on what the Parliament is all about.

TEACHING RESOURCES

Go to the teaching resources page which includes a 4 step teaching sequence.

GREEN PAPER

Students used the Green Paper Template 2017 to complete their one-page Green Paper for the Parliament – the Green Paper Instructions 2017 may help too. You can find examples of Green Papers here.

EXTRA ASSISTANCE:

EXPERT PRESENTERS: We have a list of expert volunteers happy to come to your class to present on sustainability, ecological footprint, renewable energy and more. Check our presenter list and contact our Project Officer at parliament@see-change.org.au to book a speaker.

PROJECT UPDATES: Parliament of Youth Newsletter

STAY CONNECTED: Join our Parliament of Youth Facebook group.

In a nutshell: What do participating schools/students do?

1. Study the concepts of the ecological footprint and sustainability. Click here for some useful resources.

2. Study one aspect of human lifestyle and how it relates to Canberra’s ecological footprint. Click here for suggested focus topics.

Student Parliamentarians working on postcards to politicians at the 2015 Parliament

3. Develop a proposal for action to reduce Canberra’s footprint.

4. Each Parliament team outlines what they’ve learnt and sells their single proposal for action in a one-page Parliament paper (Green Paper) (due 5 May 2017 – end of week 2, term 2). (One Green Paper per Parliament team. Click here for the Green Paper Template and Green Paper Instructions 2017.)

5. Each Parliament team prepares a 5 minute presentation, based on their Green Paper.

6. Each Parliament team chooses one student to act as their Minister if their proposal is chosen as one of the best at the Parliament. Ministers prepare a one minute summary speech outlining and selling their proposal in case they need to present this at the Parliament.

7. At the Parliament in term 2, 2017, school teams meet in year group committees with other schools and as a full Parliament to deliver their presentations and vote on the best proposals to take forward to Canberra’s politicians.