Junior youth group in Wongan Hills strengthening bonds between young and old 

In this personal reflection, year 12 student Safira Shanks talks about how the junior youth group in Wongan Hills, a rural town about 180kms north of Perth in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, is being supported by a number of people of all ages, leading to bonds being strengthened between both young and old.

There is no one more passionate about the well-being of our small town than the families who have lived here for generations, tirelessly initiating and supporting many community endeavours.  

So, when we restarted our junior youth group at the beginning of last year, three such people, all over 50 years old but young at heart, stepped up to support our efforts.

This may not seem like the typical junior youth group, which is usually animated by a youth, however this arrangement has allowed for meaningful relationships to be built between older community members and the youth. It has also broken down the barriers of negative stereotypes that can be associated with youth of the current generation. They have been overjoyed to find a group of youth striving, like them, for the betterment of the community and have become some of the program’s strongest advocates, winning the additional support of many community groups and in doing so, creating endless opportunities for funding and service projects. 

Do the youth appreciate the support of these community members? Absolutely they do! They appreciate the homemade muffins; they appreciate the inventive new games and, more importantly, they appreciate the chance to form relationships with people with whom they wouldn’t have had a chance to otherwise.  

Another aspect of this varied dimension of [our group] is that it has become a shared learning experience where the junior youth and the older helpers gain unique perspectives from each other, especially during the time dedicated to studying the junior youth books. The discussions within the group have become more multifaceted because of this crossover of ages. These connections have really embedded a sense of community spirit in our group.

Looking to the Future

The continuous support from other community members has opened up opportunities to introduce them to the institute process in order to train them so that they can play more of an active role in the running of the youth group.

A potential goal for the year ahead would be to take them through Book 1 and Book 5 and work on expanding the capacity of the group. Our aim for the end of the year is that we will have two junior youth groups running simultaneously, with the support from these community members. Ideally, the two groups would be studying different books, to accommodate the growing capacity of the current members and allow for new members to be invited, while both participating in combined service projects, camps and other social activities.