Youth-group system discussed

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33061, 31 October 1972, Page 16

Youth-group system discussed

Traditional youth organisations sometimes tended to over-emphasise the need to “control the bad side of youth” and they failed to capitalise on the good side, Mr N. R. Sleep, the executive director of the National Youth Council of Australia, said in Christchurch yesterday.

On a short visit to look at the activities of the New Zealand Youth Council, Mr Sleep said that groups which were formed to reform could expect only limited interest from those who needed help most. “In Victoria, of the 400,000 young people aged between 13 and 18 only 100,000 belong to traditionally structured youth groups. “If you try to impose standards of dress, religion and behaviour on young people, you can’t be completely successful. “You get the same reaction from someone who goes to buy an axe in a shop, and is told after he’s bought it that he also has to pay for the chopping block and cord of wood that goes with it,” Mr Sleep said. Mr Sleep said the youth council in Australia was to be incorporated under the Companies Act to protect individual members of the council from any legal action, and to enable tenders to be let and other business activity to be carried out As in New Zealand, problems arose when widely diverse youth groups were represented on the same council. “We have the Scouts and Guides, Y.M.C.A., and Y.W.C.A., political parties’ young members’ groups, the Australian Union of Students, and the Young Catholic Workers—to name a few. “Depending on the issue, we have a lot of disagreement. The council decided to support 18-year-old voting, and there was a bit of an outcry from the more conservative members,” Mr Sleep said.

He said that seminars were held by the council which quite frankly adopted a particular political stance, and everyone was invited to them. They knew what the content was, and it was hoped that those opposed could learn from the viewpoint. It was not expected that all would be converted. "This seems to be the best way of solving the problem. We try to be non-party politically, but adopt issues which are politically orientated, like the 18-year-old voting for instance.” Mr Sleep said that criticism from some people that youth councils siphoned off dissent into more socially acceptable and legitimate channels was partly valid. He said that youth council members learnt how to deal with, and express themselves to, the Government and local authorities. It was a good question whether or not the less direct method had more effect than direct dissent

“Six A” was an organisation Mr Sleep said he was particularly interested in. He agreed that it was in danger of losing some of its effectiveness through the structuring that would now take place now that the community had become interested in the organisation. “Finance is a big problem of youth organisations both in Australia and here. When the community gives money to a cause it likes to know that it is being well spent, and spent the way it would like it spent.” He said it was hard to get "no-strings-attached finance.” Mr Sleep has been involved with the organisation of youth groups for about 15 years.