YOUNG LEADERS TO HELP SHAPE FUTURE OF COMMONWEALTH

Two outstanding young Australians will travel to the United Kingdom to ensure the voice of Australian youth is heard on the global stage. Ms Tamara Richardson and Mr Jerome De Vera will represent Australia at the 2018 Commonwealth Youth Forum in London in April. They will join other young leaders to debate the challenges and opportunities facing young people across the Commonwealth.

 

Ms Richardson and Mr De Vera will make excellent ambassadors for Australia and play an important role in setting priorities and developing youth-led initiatives which will influence Commonwealth decision makers. The Youth Forum is timed to feed directly into the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting scheduled from 18 to 20 April.

 

The future of the Commonwealth depends on its youth. More than 60 per cent of the Commonwealth’s 2.4 billion-strong population is aged 29 or under and, globally, one in three young people aged between 15 and 29 live in one of the 53 Commonwealth countries.

 

Ms Richardson received the 2017 Queensland Young Achiever Award and is experienced in multinational forums through her directorship of PACE 48 (Promoting Access to Cultural Education). PACE 48 is a youth-led initiative working across 48 Asia Pacific countries to create opportunities for young people to understand and share cultural heritage.

 

Mr De Vera is well versed in international policy, as a member of Global Voices, a non-profit organisation providing young people with practical experience in foreign policy, and as a Youth Delegate for the 2016 G20 Youth Summit in China. Mr De Vera is also Vice Chair of Young Engineers.

 

The Department of Education and Training and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade jointly fund the participation of Ms Richardson and Mr De Vera in the Youth Forum.