YACWA’s Youth Awards for 2021 took place in March where the Y was no stranger to feat. Staff from the Y were finalists across many award categories, including the Minister for Youth’s Most Outstanding Youth Worker Award and the ECU Community Leadership Award.
The Y WA Youth Services Manager, Laura Dunlop, was recognised as a WA youth worker that has made an outstanding contribution to her local community by doing paid or voluntary work in the youth service sector.
2020 WA Youth Parliament Program Coordinator, Taylor Watson, was recognised as an individual with outstanding leadership qualities who has taken action to empower and educate other and the Y WA’s podcast, YChats, was recognised as a youth-led group that has made an outstanding contribution to the community and inspired others to participate actively in community life.
These weren’t the only awards that Y was up for recently. Ychats has also won the Marketer’s Best Not For Profit Campaign Award for 2020! Hosted by our very own Alana Christidis, YChats is a podcast for young people by young people. It features a mix of real-life stories from young people across Western Australia, together with a mix of high-profile personalities, experts and professional speakers to offer practical support and advice, with new episodes released fortnightly.
YChats has just kicked off its third season with an episode surrounding gender equality, featuring former UWA Guild president and Women’s Officer, Bre Shanahan, touching on how issues such as the gender pay gap and sexual assault are impacting young women today.
“It’s so important for a podcast like YChats to receive recognition like this. We are so excited about the award because it really goes to show we’re making a difference for young people in Australia and we’re engaging with topics and issues they genuinely care about”, explained YChats host, Alana Christidis.
YChats received the award due to its dedicated audience and awareness among young people as well as the topical, important messages and issues discussed in each episode. The podcast has now gone national with other state chapters of the Y sharing it with their audiences.
YChats is available on Spotify, Apple podcasts and Lisbyn so stay tuned for our next episode, an exploration of self-stigma in LGBTQIA+ young people.