In Conversation: Kore Ford chair of the Albany Youth Advisory Council

Albany’s Youth Advisory Council plays an important role in communicating the voice of Albany’s young people to the City council. It is involved in organising youth events throughout the year, as well as advocacy and advising the City. Recently the YAC was involved in creating the Youth Friendly Albany Plan 2022-2025, which lays out the City’s plan for creating a community where young people feel safe, welcome, and included, encouraging participation and contribution. Ahead of Albany Pride Festival, from March 3-12, the Advertiser caught up with the chair of the YAC Kore Ford to talk about its role in supporting young people, and in particular LGBTQIA+ youth, in the community. This year, the YAC is running the Allies Project, a podcast that collects and shares the stories of young people’s LGBTQIA+ journeys as part of the festival. Mx Ford said they were excited to hear the stories from the young people of Albany. “You can definitely feel there are a lot more queer young people in Albany because we are a lot more out and proud about it,” they said. Q: What is the role of the YAC? A: The YAC offers a youth perspective on issues within the community. When the council wants to run events or make general decisions on youth affairs, they will come to the YAC to ask for our perspective and how they can help make Albany better for the youth sector. We also help organise and run youth-related events in Albany, and any other general advocacy issues that might affect the youth sector we will bring to the council as well. The example I like to use is the climate declaration. Young people have the environment as a high priority on their list of concerns, so when the climate declaration was coming around, the YAC were able to take it to council because we already had that pathway to get there. Q: What are the priorities for the youth sector in Albany? A: We did a youth plan recently and that had the new priorities as chosen by the young people of Albany who we surveyed. First on the plan were “spaces and places”, so general areas for young people to hang out, because there are not many of those in Albany and not all young people have the same interests. Then we have “planning for the future”, which is about young people not seeing themselves as getting necessary life skills, so doing what we can to maximise that. Holding workshops, advertised through schools as “stuff you need to know”. It’s an eight-week program. It’s about things like meal planning, living away from home, all things waste, and sustainable living. Just trying to upskill young people for when they are in Years 11 and 12 or on their gap year and they are about to go out into the wider world. We also have “community connection and wellbeing”, which is about developing a sense of inclusiveness and belonging by creating opportunities for young people to connect and participate in community life in ways that they choose. Q: What is the YAC doing for Pride this year? A: In the past, we have had face painting at the fair day because that’s an all-ages event and YAC wants to be involved and help out there. This year we are going to be running our Allies Project podcast. We are going to have a tent down at the fair day to gather interviews. There is going to be a recording booth set up, giving those story collectors in the Allies Project an opportunity to maybe interview some people or get the word out and create some interest. I do other stuff with Albany Pride as well, so I am also helping run and organise the youth silent disco. Q: How is the Allies Project going so far? A: It is going well; we have just had a couple of sessions with Katie McAllister (ABC Radio journalist). She is from Albany, I believe, so she was very excited to work with us on the Allies Project. We have just been holding some workshops with our story collectors, planning for what we want the podcast to look like and how to safely approach people and ask if they want to share their stories. Q: Why is Pride important for young people in Albany? A: It is a lot about community and support. When you see the community come together to celebrate queerness, it’s really uplifting for young queer people in Albany. It just makes it feel like more of a safe place, specifically during that month when you have many queer people come in from Perth so there are a lot more people and it feels like more of a safe place to be out in public. With there being a lot more people, you get to meet new people and make those connections. I have met a lot of really cool people that I’m still friends with at Pride events. Q: What are some challenges faced by LGBTQIA+ young people in Albany? A: Personally, it is not as common that I’ve experienced, but I do know there is a lot of bullying. When I first came out in Year 8, I entered the first same-sex relationship of our year group. There were a lot of people coming up and asking invasive questions. The person I was dating was experiencing a fair amount of bullying from other kids in our year, and coming out as being queer did not help. Also just being aware that some community members do not really accept us, especially when there was the whole conversion therapy that happened the other year, which was not great fun for a lot of queer people in Albany. I still have some mates that have very homophobic families and they cannot really be themselves around their families, they cannot tell them that they are queer or tell them that they have a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Sometimes if their families find out, it can lead to homelessness. I had a friend who I think was in the news recently because she bought a house, but she’s trans and she was homeless for a couple of years because she got kicked out for being trans. I personally have never really faced a whole lot of homophobia. I have a supportive family, but I acknowledge that not everybody has that support system. I have definitely been used as a token queer person in the room, where as soon as someone says the LGBTQIA+ acronym all the heads swivel to you like you are the person that is going to give all the feedback and advice on this. I am only one person, I do not speak for an entire community. Q: How can people support young people going through the LGBTQIA+ journey? A: I thought this was a really important question to ask, how to support young people going through the queer journey. I think the most important thing is to ask them how you can support them. Every person is different and everyone is going through their own journey, especially when it relates to being queer, so no two journeys are going to be the same and they are going to need support from people in different ways. I definitely think the most important thing you can do if you have a queer friend is to approach them and ask how you can support them and they will be able to tell you. I’m not going to sit here and give advice for every situation and how to deal with every young person because I don’t know how some other people’s journeys have gone and what they needed, I only know what support I needed. The important thing when asking is to create a judgment-free space where young people can just approach you and talk to you without feeling as if they are going to be judged. Also, I have been in situations before where I’ve seen people being mocked for being queer, or when people use the word “gay” in a negative way, just speaking up and saying “you’re using queer as an insult, that’s not cool” shows that you are a safe person to be around. The YAC is looking for volunteers to help with run its Pride stalls. Expressions of interest can be made to Laura Saunders at laura.saunders@albany.wa.gov.au