What is the Mount Druitt Press Conference?
Mount Druitt Press Conference is a curated conversation led by young local cultural leaders. Emerging from a need to highlight the lived experiences and concerns of Mt Druitt youth, the Mount Druitt Press Conference provides a vital opportunity for youth-led, critical conversations around the issues that matter to young people.
The unique Mount Druitt Press Conference format creates time and a safe space for young participants to reflect on 'wicked' problems facing our society - stigma, poverty, mental health, violence and hopelessness in the face of exclusion. Facing hard questions head on, young people propose meaningful solutions to these issues which fundamentally challenge social cohesion in our community and flip the lens, by focussing on the enormous strengths and potential, ready to be unleashed by the next generation.
Our Pacific Islander focused broadcast (1/4) as PI's make up 8.9% of the Mount Druitt population.
This shows through the conversations and issues raised over four live-broadcast Mount Druitt Press Conference events held over 2021-2022. In the lead up to each of these events, participants attended a series of facilitated workshops which encouraged young people to share their lived experiences with each other and to develop their own carefully considered personal reflections on issues that arise. The workshops are designed to teach and empower young people to 'control the narrative' and to curate the conversation the way they want to be heard.
The Mount Druitt Press Conference was ultimately created with the aims to:
- Create a safe space for young people to explore tough cultural and social issues that may be impacting them and other youth alike
- Exchange cultural knowledge and build respectful relationships
- Eradicate negative stereotypes of young people from Mount Druitt
- Involve young people in conversations that might impact them and future generations
Through this process, we amplify voices of the youth and provide a platform for conversations about difficult topics to reach local change-makers in a public forum. In doing this, we hope to combat societal stigmas and stereotypes, create opportunities for youth-led change and build resilience and empathy across the community.
Visit our Youth Leadership Committee page to see how we've expanded on this vision with our youth from the Mount Druitt Press Conference.
Welcome
We acknowledge the Darug people as the Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways of which FUNPARK works and lives on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.