No doubt you have heard the phrase ‘School of Hard Knocks’ an idiom that highlights the benefits of wisdom gained through practical life experience, often in the face of adversity.
But what if you wanted to take that wisdom and the ideas that have stemmed from it and do something to change the world so that others don’t have to trip at the same hard knock.
Well for 2 days in September you are invited to attend Hard Knock Life offering you the opportunity to create a better world for you and other young people, now and in the future. They aim to leverage the creativity of young minds to create meaningful participation and effective change in local communities.
The event is being run as in the rather cool unconference format, yes that’s an UNconference which is far more energetic, dynamic and designed to be what you want rather than its standard conference counterpart.
Day one of Hard Knock Life (Friday 9 September) will bring together individuals who engage with and involve young people in projects, programs and organisations to discuss how young people can make their voices heard and how they make a very real and practical difference: from the street to the Board Room.
How can we more effectively help young people determine a better future? How can we ensure their contribution is meaningful and has impact? How involved should young people be in developing strategies and solutions within organisations? And how can we ensure we’re not just repeating the same old mistakes or being tokenistic in how we engage young people?
The second day of the conference (Saturday 10 September) will give young people their voice. Utilising the unconference model, young people will be invited to decide what topics and sessions they want to run. These sessions will result in the sharing of ideas, inspirations, shared goals and connections.
Why attend Hard Knock Life?
For young people:
- Have an opinion on how to make the world a better place? Bring it! Tell the world.
- Connect with other young people passionate about making the word a better place and share ideas about how you can make your ideas a reality.
- Meet representatives from organisations who are fighting to make the world a better place for young people – and tell them what you think.
- Find out how you can engage with organisations you admire and would like to support. Hear about how you can become involved in youth participation programs of great youth organisations.
For organisations
- Learn how to ensure that your organisation’s youth participation activity is relevant and meaningful.
- Learn how to engage and mobilise the youth voice.
- Learn how to more effectively engage with your youth reference group and improve outcomes.
- Learn what technologies can be utilised to increase your level of youth participation and improve communication.
- Learn what pitfalls, past mistakes and how ‘volunteer fatigue’ can undermine your youth participation.
The details
When
9-10 September
Arrive from 9.00am for 9.30am start. Finishes at 4.00pm
Venue
Gasworks Arts Park, Albert Park (Melbourne)
Cost
Youth (Under 25s) can register for free
Individuals over 25: $50
Organisations: $100
