By Bridget Sheehan
Young people yearn for ‘third spaces’. That is, places other than home or school/work, where they can hang out with friends, express themselves, or just ‘be’, and not have to spend money.
According to Victoria University researcher Dr Roshani Jayawardana, it can be hard to find somewhere like this, depending on where you live. And in the western suburbs, many young people have experienced discrimination and racism in community spaces.
“Race-based discrimination subjects young people to dominant narratives that hyper-focus on their perceived adversity, and paint them as problems.
“These harmful narratives elicit exclusion, discrimination, and surveillance of young people, which influences the way that they are treated, move and interact in their community, and how safe they feel in shared spaces.”
Dr Jayawardana wrote her PhD thesis on a program called Brimbank LIVE which was used to address and respond to structural and symbolic forms of violence faced by young people in Brimbank. A Brimbank local and young person herself when the project began in 2019, Dr Jayawardana participated in and documented the program – sharing findings in her PhD thesis ‘Brimbank LIVE: the youth-led radio program broadcasting young people’s self-determined stories.’ The hope is to build on this and for these findings to inform plans locally and potentially across the west of Melbourne (Naarm).
Located next to Watergardens Shopping Centre, and close to the train station and bus stops, Sydenham Neighbourhood House is well-located as a community space for young people. However, in 2018, many local young people felt excluded and unwelcome there, and places like it.
Brimbank Neighbourhood Houses and Community Centres set out to change this. They made a commitment, in policy, and program delivery to provide young people with initiatives and opportunities to harness community strengths, draw on local knowledge, learn and gain skills and lead programs – partnering with young people including Dr Jayawardana.
Together with youth workers, the team went out to meet young people where they were: at bus stops, food courts, and other popular meeting spots, and asked them what they would want from a community space. Creative activities came through as a key theme, and in 2019 to early 2020, the young collective, with support from Sydenham Neighbourhood House and Brimbank City Council, ran informal workshops in music production, songwriting, dance, spoken word, and poetry, which high numbers of young people attended.
When the impact of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns made in-person participation impossible, the project team pivoted to radio.
“We developed Brimbank LIVE – a radio program where a group of young people aged between 15–30 carved out a youth-led community radio station and their own radio shows.”
The program was run through digital platforms, which provided meaningful connection for the participants at a time of isolation, and supported them to develop technical skills in radio production (like programming, writing show plans, and producing) and build professional contacts in the local community and industry, such as Making Media Australia. They developed transferrable skills and explored areas of passion.
“Some of the young people who were musicians learned how to write and produce music, and they were able to broadcast that music on radio. They were able to nurture skills that weren’t just important for the radio making space, but beyond.”
“Young people created pre-recorded and live radio content that aired on their radio shows based on their interests. Their shows covered a wide range of topics including sports, music, pop culture, culture, current affairs, gender diversity, politics and racism – with ‘The Sports Hour’, ‘Local Music Hype,’ and ‘In the Know Show’ being just a couple of examples.”
Over the course of the first week of broadcast, the radio shows had 1,308 listeners. Shows were archived and are still available online. As part of her thesis, Dr Jayawardana interviewed nine participants in the program.
“Young participants I interviewed as part of my thesis spoke about radio-making as something that supported storytelling, meaning making, and cultural participation, in a context where they are otherwise seen ‘in the margins’”.
Alongside the youth leadership, she said that adult and institutional support was critical, and that being a youth-led program doesn’t mean being void of adult involvement.
“The relationships we had with Council, with Sydenham Neighbourhood House, and the radio producer: helping us and guiding us, giving us access to spaces, tools and training, being trusted, helped us build belief as a young collective. It really highlighted how important it was to have a bunch of people working and supporting young people while young people are leading spaces.”
Young people from the program have gone to pursue further education and careers in media. For example, a young person who produced “The Sports Hour,” now works in the sports media space as a sportswriter, commentator, presenter, and producer, after securing an internship with experience they had from Brimbank LIVE.
Reflecting on her own involvement as a participant in this community-engaged program, Dr Jayawardana said the range of stories shared showed “our life biographies and experiences cannot be neatly tied up and seen through social categories. These stories humanise us as complex beings who have a range of stories to tell about our lives.”
