Youth Action

Youth Action is the peak body organisation for young people and youth services in New South Wales, Australia. Previously known as Youth Action Policy Association (YAPA), the organisation represents 1.25 million young people and the services that support them.

Youth Action undertakes a vast range of activities including policy development, advocacy work and sector support.

In the late 1980s there were three youth peak bodies across New South Wales:

In 1990 YACO NSW and DYSA amalgamated to form Youth Action and Policy Association (YAPA), while YAA (now YFoundations) continued as a peak for youth accommodation services. In March 2013, the organisation changed its common name from YAPA to Youth Action.

The organisation:

Youth Action is currently led by Katie Acheson. In 2015 Katie Acheson was named the second most influential person in the social sector, by the Impact 25 Awards. Katie sits on numerous advisory committees and was the Australian Youth Expert for the Australian Youth Development Index 2016.

Youth Action regularly conducts research to inform public policy in New South Wales. In 2016 Youth Action partnered with the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY) to survey young people about the issues they cared about in the lead up to the federal election. The resulting report, Agenda for Action, was widely publicised in state and national media, influencing the conversation about young people in the political sphere.

In 2016 Youth Action was also on the technical advisory committee for the first ever Australian Youth Development Index. This index analysed the state of youth development across the country, and changes since 2006. It was part of the Commonwealth Youth Programme initiative to increase focus on youth development through presenting and collecting relevant data and complemented the Commonwealth Youth Development Index.

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