Projects

Projects - Realising Human Potential: Seeking Pathways to Success and Well Being for Australia's Young People

Source: VicHealth

This collaborative project aimed to help young Australians to optimise their wellbeing and to realise their potential. It was an exercise in interdisciplinary synthesis, recognising that discipline-based empirical studies are limited in their capacity to capture the subtlety of the effects of social change on young people and the complexity of their responses. The project's unique approach was to bring together research findings across disciplines, including medicine and the social sciences, to form an integrated picture of young people's situation and to make recommendations for policy. Two project workshops in 2004 involved a small group of researchers and drew particularly on longitudinal studies of young Australians, with commentary from experts in other disciplines (including health promotion, history, theology, neuropsychology and economics). In 2005, a further project workshop involved youth sector policy makers and practitioners, and reviewed the practical and policy implications of the project's findings.

A 50 page project report explores what has been learned and suggests future directions. It is available at the Australia 21 website at:

http://www.australia21.org.au/pdf/youth_futures.pdf

A shorter journal article is also available online at:

www.mja.com.au/public/issues/183_08_171005/eck10551_fm.html

This project was a collaboration between Australia 21 and the Australian Youth Research Centre. It was led by Richard Eckersley from Australian National University, Johanna Wyn and Ani Wierenga from the AYRC, and funded by VicHealth.

Contact: Johanna Wyn and Ani Wierenga

Contact: yrc-info@unimelb.edu.au