Youth voice, agency and leadership in disaster risk reduction and resilience: A panel discussion with student leaders from Upwey High School

The students will share their insights on participatory emergency management planning, socially critical disaster resilience education, and student-led advocacy for inclusive policy and practice. The students will also discuss the key challenges to increasing youth voice, agency and leadership and the emerging opportunities for systems change at the local, state and national level.

Join us to hear from these young change-makers who have been working with researchers and practitioners to develop evidence-based approaches to engaging students as genuine partners in strategic decision-making and meaningful action.

Guest Speakers

Dr Briony Towers (Moderator)

Co-Director, Leadrrr
Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Regenerative Futures, Deakin University

Briony is a researcher and practitioner specialising in community-based emergency management and education for disaster risk reduction and resilience. Her research draws on theories and concepts from psychology, geography, sociology and education to develop policy and practice that addresses the needs, priorities and concerns of those at risk. Briony has a special interest in child- and youth-led approaches to understanding and addressing socio-ecological challenges. At Leadrrr, she is engaged in collaborative, multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral projects that seek to transform the structures and systems that create and entrench disaster risk in school communities. At the Centre for Regenerative Futures, she is working with environmental education academics to advance the theory and practice of disaster resilient schooling in the Anthropocene.

Scarlett Harrison

Year 11 Student, Eltham High School

Scarlett is a Year 11 student and the newly appointed School Leader at Eltham High School. She is also an alumna of Strathewen Primary School, where she contributed to the groundbreaking work of the Strathewen-Arthurs Creek Bushfire Education Partnership. As a Grade 6 student, she worked with her classmates to conduct a student-led evaluation of the Partnership and presented the findings at the 2019 Australian Disaster Resilience Conference. These experiences provided Scarlett with deep insights into the contributions children can make to disaster risk management, and she is now a passionate advocate for children’s rights to participate in the development and implementation of policies, programs, and services. As a high school student, Scarlett now works with the Strathewen-Arthurs Creek Bushfire Education Partnership as a volunteer. She also serves as a trusted advisor to researchers and practitioners in the fields of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. Scarlett recently joined her local volunteer fire brigade and she is now looking forward to supporting a new generation of children to become agents of change in their communities.

Panellists

The panel discussants will be six students from Upwey High School, which is located in the bushfire prone Dandenong Ranges in Victoria. Over the last 18 months, these students have been involved in participatory action research focussed in increasing student participation in disaster risk management in their local community. To date, the students have contributed to the development of an emergent framework for student participation in school bushfire planning and shared their views with senior emergency management officials at the Yarra Ranges Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committee meeting. They have also advocated for increased student participation in local disaster risk management at a Yarra Ranges Council meeting. The students are now deeply committed to helping their school community build the adaptive capacity it will need to cope with more frequent, more intense extreme weather events and bushfires.