Opening the doors

This manual is for anyone who works with young people, or wants to work with young people.

We have designed this manual for the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury and Penrith areas (the Nepean Region). The manual also contains useful information for other areas in NSW as well.

It has lots of practical advice about working with different groups of young people who may experience barriers to using your service.

It’s a “Do It Yourself” access and equity manual for working with young people.

What is access and equity?

Access means that your service is available to everyone who is entitled to use it.

Equity means that your service is developed and delivered on the basis of fair treatment of everyone who is entitled to use it.

Access and equity also involves identifying and removing barriers that stop young people knowing about or using your service.

Access and equity are important principles of social justice.

Other social justice principles include:

  • Communication means that young people are informed about your service and how they can use it.

  • Participation means that young people are given opportunities to have their say and have their views considered in decision making processes that affect their lives. This includes the opportunity to have their say about how your service and its programs are developed, delivered and evaluated.

  • Responsiveness means that your service is aware of the needs of young people from diverse backgrounds and is responsive to these needs as much as practicable.

  • Effectiveness means that your service is results orientated and focuses on the actual outcomes being achieved for clients.

  • Efficiency means that your service makes the best use of available resources.

  • Accountability means that your service reports on the way it provides its services and is accountable to young people, their families, the broader community, funding providers and your management committee.

There are a number of Australian and NSW laws about access and equity which your service needs to comply with. If you receive any government funding your funding body will also require you to take action on access and equity as a condition of funding. We have outlined relevant laws and funding body agreements in the following pages.

In this manual we have outlined some of the main issues and barriers affecting different groups of young people. This information is written as a guide to increase your knowledge and awareness. Each young person should be seen as an individual, and as such they may have different needs than other young people.

See Access & equity checklist