Commissioner and the community

The Commissioner visited the Parkwood Primary School and presented the Intensive English Centre students with a mural made from their individual artworks.

The students had painted a picture of their faces as part of the Commissioner’s research into the wellbeing of children and young people. The students were asked to draw what made them feel happy and sad as a fun way of exploring what they think affects their wellbeing.

Parkwood students were invited to participate in the wellbeing research because of its high proportion of migrant and refugee children.

The individual pictures were sewn together and the mural was then presented back to the school and will be displayed in the Intensive English Centre.

The Commissioner met with members of Fremantle headspace Youth Reference Group about mental health issues for young people.

Fremantle headspace is a mental health service for young people 12 to 25 and the reference group contribute to help ensure the services provided are youth friendly and relevant.

Members of the group discussed how valuable the service was because it was a relaxed and friendly ‘one-stop’ shop. They told the Commissioner that services like Fremantle headspace need to be more widely available for young people in all areas.

Other issues raised included the importance of educating young people, parents and the community about mental health and illness with a focus on early intervention and education about how to stay mentally healthy during stressful times, for example exams. They felt part of staying mentally healthy was being involved in positive community activities and events.

The Commissioner encouraged the group to contact her through her website with any further issues they may like to raise as mental health will remain a high priority for her and she would like her submissions to reflect their views

 More information about the Fremantle headspace is available on their website.

The Commissioner presented the keynote address at the South West Early Years conference in Bunbury.

The importance of early years in a child’s development was the focus of the Commissioner’s speech, and she highlighted the Warmun Early Learning Centre and Challis Early Learning Centre as two examples of best practice in Western Australia.

About 100 people, including early childhood educators, child care workers, health workers and some parents, attended the conference which was hosted by the South West Early Learning Network,

Other presenters included Prue Walsh ( Playgroup WA), Gary Segal (Dads in the early years – Meerilinga) and Gail Clarke (Department of Education and Training).

The Commissioner’s speech is available on this website.

Further details about the South West Early Learning Network are available on their website.

Today the Commissioner joined Executive Director Children and Family Services Helen Creed in presenting the 2009 Children’s Week Awards of Recognition at the Cockburn Youth Services Youth Centre hosted by Meerilinga Young Children’s Foundation.

Presented to deserving groups, individual children and community groups, the awards have been coordinated by Meerilinga for 24 years.

The Commissioner presented the Caring for the Earth Award and the Caring for Myself or Others Award.

Caring for the Earth

The Commissioner today hosted a Children’s Week Forum at the University of Western Australia featuring the theme “Turning Children’s Rights into Reality”.

Over 150 decision makers and opinion leaders attended the event, which coincided with the 20th anniversary of the development of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The forum looked at how the Convention can be used by industry, governments, organisations and communities as a tool to help improve services, policies and legislation for the benefit of children and young people.

Keynote speakers included 2009 Australian of the Year Professor Mick Dodson; international human rights activist Chris Sidoti; 2008 Youth Representative to the United Nations Beth Shaw; Director National Children’s and Youth Law Centre James McDougall; University of Western Australia law student Krista Moir; and Millennium Kids who recently attended a youth conference in Denmark Lewis Whitehurst, Samantha Fielder, Alexander Craig and Luke McMillan.

Further information on the forum, including resources, pictures and related links, is available in the events section of the Commissioner’s website.

The Commissioner met with the Office of Multicultural Interest’s Ethnic Youth Advisory Group today.

The current members of this group represent a broad range of ethnic groups in WA and they discussed the many issues facing children and young people in both established and emerging ethnic communities.

In particular, the importance of creating opportunities to share information between cultures and to provide positive role models for children and young people were emphasised.  

The Commissioner was impressed by the positive ideas and commitment of group members and looks forward to working more with them to improve the experiences of migrant and refugee children and young people in Western Australia.

These examples are at the end of the publication which is a simple and practical guide to the process of listening, and responding meaningfully, to children and young people.

The Commissioner visited Camboon Primary School in Noranda today. She met with Principal Josh Jashari and deputy principals Susan Hall and Rachel Monamy who showed the Commissioner around the school.

Art students from Governor Stirling Senior High School visited the Commissioner today at her office in Subiaco to view the Our Space room and see how their artwork has contributed to the decoration of the room.

The Commissioner met with the students to thank them for their artwork and chat about their school and plans for the future.

The students also participated in discussions as part of the wellbeing research which has been commissioned by the Commissioner.