Youth Who Change The World

Sunday, 21st June 2009

Dream Build Inspire Lead! is all about protecting dreams and ensuring that no matter what life throws at you, you do whatever it takes to turn your dreams into reality. So today I thought I’d look at some inspiring young individuals who are doing just that. Turning dreams into reality and making a difference in the world.

A couple of weeks ago I had a fantastic opportunity to address the Northern Territory Youth Minister’s Youth Round Table. The Round Table comprises of 16 young people from all over the Territory, who meet quarterly to discuss challenges and issues facing youth today. During my time with them I spoke about what I do in terms of BLKMGK and gave them an idea of what Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead! is all about. Since we are all working in the Youth Space we might as well communicate with one another and see what synergies we have and how best we can pool our resources so that Young People can benefit from our activities.

The second reason I wanted to speak to them is to actually remind myself of the importance of being passionate. These days society has become so negative and it is quite easy to get stuck amongst the mud (politics, negativity, etc etc) and forget that youthful fire that we all once had before we became adults in the real world. So by listening to them talk about their projects and see their eyes light up as they spoke, it was fantastic to see that circumstances don’t mean anything if you believe you can change things. I love it! This year the round table are focusing on a few major things such as changing the negative connotations associated with graffiti and anti drink driving education programs for youth. They are undertaking a variety of projects through sub committees so if you want to get involved make sure you check out the website and help these talented young guys and girls change the world. Also a special thanks to Felicity Wardle who is the chair person of the Round Table for sending me this message:

Dear AJ, On behalf of the 2009 Youth Minister’s Round Table of Young Territorians, Iam writing to thank you for kindly giving up your time to visit us at the Darwin
Airport Resort for our second meeting. Your amazing speech and presentation was very inspiring to us all. Your passion and dedication is very motivating and meeting you over the weekend was definitely a highlight of our second meeting.Your story gave us all the encouragement not to forget our dreams and aspirations in life. We wish you all the best in your business and getting the mentor website up and running. We look forward to seeing it in the future. You are a great inspiration to us all. Keep up the great work. Thanks again.
Yours sincerely - Felicity

WOW! I’m totally blown away that my presentation had that impact on you and your team, and please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if there’s anything I can help you guys out with. Good luck with your projects!!!

Next up off the rank we have Kevin Kadirgamar who is the chair of MYNT. I’d never even heard of these guys until Kevin dropped me an email a few weeks ago. MYNT stands for Multicultural Youth of the Northern Territory and was established in April 2007. According to Kevin, MYNT is all about “integrating youth from all backgrounds (not limited to ethnic but including mainstream and indigenous) and creating an avenue for anyone (aged 12 - 30) to get their ideas for youth events / projects etc.. alive. The organisation is entirely youth run and we have recently employed our first Youth Co-ordinator”. Kevin was gracious enough to invite me along to their launch last week and I had a great time meeting Kevin and Elizabeth from MYNT and a few of the guys from the new Youth Drop in Center in Malak. If you want to get involved with MYNT then drop Kevin an email Looking forward to working with all of these guys and seeing how best Dream,Build,Inspire,Lead! can promote their activities and help them change the world for kids in the the NT. Good luck guys!

And last but certainly not least, I had the amazing opportunity of meeting and spending a bit of time with Jonty Bush - Young Australian of the Year 2009!!! Jonty was up here in the NT doing her Australia Day Council national visits and we were quite fortunate to book her for one of our Young Professionals Network functions. Noel from YPN hosted Jonty at a lunchtime session and we all got to hear her totally amazing story. Long story short, Jonty’s sister was murdered when she was 21 and shortly afterwards her father was the victim of an unprovoked assault and ended up dying also. As a result of these two tragic instances in her life Jonty became a passionate advocate for Victims rights and joined the Queensland Homicide Victims group. She also started the one punch can kill campaign to educate everyday people that one punch has the power to kill someone. Her passion and dedication to the cause saw her become the Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Homicide Victims Group at the age of 27 - which makes her one of the Youngest CEO’s in the nation. As a result of all of these circumstances, Jonty was named the Young Australian of the Year - and she deserves it!

While Jonty addressed the crowd I was madly scribbling down notes. She spoke about how her school career councilor told her that the only career she could hope for at best was being a secretary. When speaking to school kids who might feel the same way about their aspiring career choices, Jonty offers the wisdom “don’t let anyone define you as a person...it’s the choices that you make in the moment - that’s what counts.”

Jonty also discussed the notion of victimology - how people deal with people during tragic circumstances. She said that in her case people were expecting her to be depressed and that people made her feel guilty whenever she was smiling or laughing - as if they had their own idea how her “recovery” should be made. Jonty’s philosophy about the whole ordeal was to do something really positive and in her eyes it was a case of letting circumstances “by my reason not my excuse”.

Regarding the One Punch Can Kill Campaign, Jonty started this because of what happened with her father. There are two main options for charging an individual who has killed someone. If there was intent to kill that person then the charge is murder. If however there was no intent then the charge is manslaughter - and there are a variety of legal defences available including “accident”. Basically the guy who murdered her father pleaded not guilty to manslaughter because it was an accident and he had no idea that by punching someone that could kill him. So Jonty started the one punch can kill campaign to educated users that even just one punch can kill someone. She took to the streets and managed to rally hundreds of people to spread the message. The moment of glory came sometime later, when police arrested a man who punched someone at a pub and the victim died. At this stage police have to prove intent so they were able to have the man admit on camera that he was aware of the one punch can kill campaign and therefore intended to kill the victim. All of Jonty’s hard efforts had paid off!

When talking about her appointment as CEO of the Queensland Homicide Victims Group (QHVSG), Jonty speaks about changing perceptions and challenging the status quo. Before she started, all the board members and executive staff were victims themselves and therefore had a strong understanding of what other victims went through, but also at the same time they all had this mentality that no one cared about them. Through her perseverance, understanding and passion Jonty turned this around and now the group has a more balanced view and is able to lobby government for legislation review more effectively.
Jonty also spoke about what it’s like being a young person in business - a lot of people assume she knows nothing and she uses this to her advantage and asks good questions to receive as much information as possible.

During the YPN session I asked her who her role models were and surprisingly enough Jonty doesn’t really have any celebrity role models. Rather, she draws bits and pieces here and there off everyday people. For instance, she knows a mother of three children who has lost all of her kids - how does she keep going in the morning day after day?

Jonty is a truly amazing individual and if you do get a chance to hear her speak you’ll know what I’m talking about. The world needs more people like Jonty - people who use their circumstances as reasons and not excuses. Good luck with your dreams Jonty!!!

So there you have it, Youth who are changing the world in their own way. I have truly been inspired by all of them and I hope that by reading these stories you have too. So this week’s challenge is to think about a challenge that you’ve had in your life. How did it effect you? Looking back on it, would you have done something different or made a different choice? Remember let your circumstances be your reasons, not your excuses.

Dream, Build, Inspire, Lead!

AJ~

Author: AJ Kulatunga

Category:

inspire, Round Table Young Territorians, MYNT, Kevin Kadirgamar, Young Australian, Jonty Bush, One punch can kill,