youth futures summit postponement

Dear everyone,

Like everyone else, we have been closely following the developments around COVID-19 and updates and guidelines from health authorities. On Friday, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer recommended that non-essential organised gatherings of greater than 500 do not proceed. Following this, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the Youth Futures Summit, until the end of this year.

We want to ensure that the Youth Futures Summit is a safe and inclusive environment for people to be in. Although it is not known what this outbreak of COVID-19 will look like in Australia, it is clear that it would not be safe or responsible to host such a large event in five weeks time. Additionally, social distancing has proven to be one of the most effective measures in helping to contain COVID-19, and we want to ensure that all work the National Youth Commission is conducting moving forward is helping to control the spread of COVID-19.

We are working with Epicure to confirm new dates for the Youth Futures Summit later this year. We will update this website with the new dates as soon as we lock them in.

We are disappointed that what was shaping up to be a great event cannot move ahead in April. However, this disappointment is not as important as the public health challenge that COVID-19 presents. We look forward to a time when COVID-19 is behind us, where we can all come together again. Following what is looking to be massive disruptions and precarity around young people accessing education and employment, it will be even more critical for us to have the Youth Futures Summit.

The National Youth Commission would also like to extend a message of solidarity to all those currently being impacted by COVID-19. From those who have experienced severe illness or have passed away, the medical staff working on the front lines, the people protecting the community by self-isolating, or the many young people in casual positions that are entering a period of insecure work. We would like to acknowledge that the impact of COVID-19 will be worse for some and particularly for more vulnerable communities.

We stand with you and with everyone else across the world that is being impacted by COVID-19, and are doing their part to protect the community.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know.

Alex McLean and Keith Waters.