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HEYWIRE 2001

Rural and regional young people tell their stories on ABC radio

The Department of Transport and Regional Services (DOTARS) is a major sponsor of the ABC Heywire award scheme for regional and rural young people. Heywire is an ABC initiative which invites regional and rural youth (16-22 years) to submit a three-minute radio story about their experiences in, and views on, regional Australia.

Over 700 entries were received from around Australia in 2001 and from them 40 winners were chosen from ABC Rural locations around the country. The winning entries were produced as professional radio stories for broadcasting on ABC Radio, Triple J and Radio National.

But the radio broadcast is not all! The Heywire winners are also invited to the Heywire Youth Issues Forum. The Forum took place in Canberra on 10-15 February 2002 and in this time the young people participated in many and varied activities.

One of these activities involved getting the young participants to get together in teams and prepare applications on topical regional or rural youth issues for a hypothetical Commonwealth youth funding programme.

Once developed each team made a presentation to an expert panel of four, comprising Robyn Beetham, responsible for Regional Programmes, DOTARS, Sue Howard, Director Radio ABC, Peter Core, Managing Director Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) and Darryl Durham, Manager Junior Sports Programs, Australian Sports Commission. The proposed projects were varied and sought to tackle problems associated with geographical isolation due to the following.

• Physical location and social isolation due to lack of community cohesion.
• Young achievers in small towns can experience the tall poppy syndrome.
• Suicide and depression.
• Youth road deaths because of poor country roads.
• The lack of the support structures available in urban environments.
• Alienation

Specific projects dealt with the following.

• The creation of a mobile radio station to travel around rural and regional Australia to give young people and their communities a voice.
• The establishment of a web based community ‘newspaper’ for young people to communicate about issues of common interest.
• Setting up an organisation to help rural and regional young people adjust to university life in large cities.
• Organising a nation wide community festival at which each community highlights its particular characteristics, such as sport or food.

After each presentation the team received feedback on their proposed project from the panel. In some cases it was pointed out that services similar to those described by the presenters existed but often only in capital cities or because of the economic factor would not be viable in regional areas.

The panel was impressed with some of the ideas, and Sue Howard, the Director of ABC radio, indicated that she may be able to action some of them. Common themes were the need to provide outlets for youth and the promotion of community coherence through the generation of projects of relevance to the opportunities and/or needs of particular areas.

Applications for Heywire 2002 will open mid-year.
Home page: www.abc.net.au/heywire/default.htm
Entry form and contact details: www.abc.net.au/heywire/enter.htm
Timelines: www.abc.net.au/heywire/timeline.htm
For more information contact Clare Guenther, on (02) 6274 6291 or email clare.guenther@dotars.gov.au

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