About Merri-bek Youth

Merri-bek Youth is your local free youth service dedicated to improving the lives of young people.

Our focus is to create safe spaces where young people can hang out, build social connections, actively contribute to their community, and access opportunities to learn and grow.

Our small team are out in the community working with and alongside young people. We're in schools running programs and workshops, at festivals hosting activities and youth consultations, and behind the desk at Oxygen Youth Space, ready to provide support and guidance.

We deliver free weekly programs across Merri-bek, offering young people the chance to socialise, make friends, participate in community decisions, develop life skills, and have fun!

Behind the scenes, we coordinate a network of youth services and community organisations, and we advocate within council to create more youth-friendly spaces and opportunities in Merri-bek.

We welcome all young people from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences.

Call us on 1800 My Youth (1800 699 688) on Monday to Friday, from 9am and 5pm.

Email us at merribekyouth@merri-bek.vic.gov.au

Visit us Oxygen Youth Space at 4-8 Gaffney Street, Coburg North 3056. You can find out about Drop-In at Oxygen and the great things at this venue on our Oxygen Youth Space page.

You can also message us on the Merri-bek Youth Facebook page or on our Instagram account.
Merri-bek Youth is Merri-bek City Council's dedicated youth service. We run services for young people aged 12 to 24 years old.

Our staff have a range of experience and backgrounds. All our staff have experience working with young people.
We commit to having a clear process of handling complaints. This includes complaints about the behaviour of our staff.

If you need to make a complaint, you can call Merri-bek City Council on 9240 1111. You can also make a complaint at the Merri-bek Civic Centre (90 Bell Street, Coburg) or at the Oxygen Youth Space (4/8 Gaffney St, Coburg).

The Manager of Youth Services will respond to all complaints. We will keep our records confidential.

For more details on making a complaint, go to our Complaints page.

Your safety

Merri-bek Youth is committed to being a Child Safe organisation and has zero tolerance for child abuse. We recognise our legal and moral responsibilities in keeping young people safe from harm and promoting their best interests.

At Merri-bek Youth we support and encourage the empowerment and participation of young people. We aim to create a child safety culture and are continually working to ensure we have child safe and friendly environments where young people are heard, respected, and encouraged to reach their full potential.

If you or another young person is in immediate danger call 000(triple zero) and ask for the police.

Council can provide support if you have concerns about your safety and wellbeing and you don’t know who else to contact. We have processes in place to ensure any reports of child safe concerns are listened to, treated seriously and responded to quickly. All reports will be treated confidentially. Once a report is received a Child Safe Officer will respond within one working day.

Report your concern
Merri-bek City Council is committed to being a Child Safe organisation and has zero tolerance for child abuse. We recognise our legal and moral responsibilities in keeping children and young people safe from harm and promoting their best interests.

You can find out more on the Merri-bek's Child Safety and wellbeing page.

1800 MY YOUTH

Call 1800 MY YOUTH (1800 699 688) for support, advice and information. Our helpful and knowledgable team can assist you between Monday and Friday from 9am to 5pm.

Our strategies for supporting young people

Our youth strategies guide the creation and delivery of all our services. These strategies also help us to provide for the current and future needs of young people.

The Children, Young People and Families Plan 2021-2025 (PDF 888 kB) (the ‘Plan’) aims to improve health, wellbeing, and educational outcomes.

The Plan is focused on children and young people from birth to adulthood (0 to 24 years) and their families.

The Plan’s vision is that all children, young people, and families live in a community where they are healthy, resilient, empowered, safe, and belong. This vision sets an ambitious goal to improve outcomes across a range of areas to ensure children and young people have the best start in life, engage in educational opportunities, actively contribute to their community, and transition into further training and employment.

You can find out more about this plan on our Children, Young People and Families Plan page.
Our Youth Action Plan 2020 to 2021 (2019) (PDF 761Kb) is tied to our full potential strategy (see above). In order to act on our full potential strategy we have committed to develop a series of 2-year action plans which will enable flexibility, continuous improvement, and allow us to make priority adjustments to our plan.

We send our yearly update reports from our action plan to Council. Council then decide if they will endorse these reports. Currently there are no endorsed reports. When endorsed reports are available you will be able to access them here.

The first and current youth action plan for 2020 to 2021 was developed and endorsed in 2019, and has been aligned to Merri-bek youth's current available resources.
In 2018 we consulted with approximately 2,300 young people, local service organisations and educators to find out how we can improve our services and offerings to help young people reach their full potential.

Out of this research and consultation we developed 'Full Potential: A Strategy for Merri-bek's Young People in 2019. This strategy outlines 5 outcome areas where we can best support young people, including:

1. Improving our service system

2. Enhancing voice and participation

3. Increasing skills and job opportunities

4. Supporting health and resilience

5. Providing youth friendly spaces and places

You can find out more about this strategy by downloading Full Potential - A Strategy for Merri-bek's Young People (2019) (PDF 15Mb), and you can also see our Young People in Merri-bek: A Needs and Services Analysis (2018) (PDF 835Kb) that was also created based on our research and consultation phase.
For more information about Merri-bek Youth strategies you can email the Youth Projects Coordinator Damien Woodcock at dwoodcock@moreland.vic.gov.au or you can speak to the youth team by calling 9389 8647.

Data and social research

We use data and social research to understand the needs and challenges of Merri-bek's young people and develop our services to suit.

Early Years and Youth Profile

The Merri-bek Early Years and Youth Profile provides data on children and young people in Merri-bek across five areas:
- Current and future population
- Cultural and linguistic diversity
- Education and employment
- Housing and homelessness
- Health and wellbeing
Download the report below:

Early years and youth profile (Apr 2021) (PDF)

You can see more profiles and reports on our Research and data reports page.
Moreland Youth used Resilient Youth Australia's Youth Resilience Survey to track and monitor resilience outcomes in Merri-bek’s young people. This project commenced in 2018 ended in 2020. You can find out more about this organisation on the Resilient Youth Australia website.

The Youth resilience survey is an online tool which places young people at the centre of their own learning and collects, collates and analyses self-reported characteristics of young people in terms of their:
- strengths
- hopefulness
- incidence of anxiety and depression
- risk and protective behaviours
The Youth Resilience Survey was completed by 1882 indviduals from 15 primary and secondary schools across Merri-bek.

You can see the the Merri-bek data in the documents below.

2020:
- Moreland Primary Cross - sectional (PDF 3.7Mb)
2019:
2018:

Merri-bek Youth Commitment Network

The Merri-bek Youth Commitment Network brings together community and government services, secondary school wellbeing teams, and youth health professionals who work with or help young people and their families.

The network meets monthly so members can share their program information, network, collaborate & participate in professional development.

Our monthly meetings are held at Oxygen Youth Space, 4-8 Gaffney Street, Coburg North 3056.

To join the network please email Liam Walsh at lwash@merri-bek.vic.gov.au or call him on 9389 8643.

Student Placements and Work Experience

We are committed to the ongoing professional development of students preparing for a career in Youth Work. We provide placement opportunities for students at University and TAFE. We also host secondary school students for Work Experience. If you are interested, please email merribekyouth@merri-bek.vic.gov.au with your course requirements and hours.

Typical opportunities include:
- Attending Network Meetings
- Contributing to Policy Development
- Assisting with Funding Applications
- Industry Training and Development
- Research and Presentations
- Observation
Merri-bek Youth accepts placement applications year-round.

Express your interest by contacting Liam Walsh at lwalsh@merri-bek.vic.gov.au

Please include the following information in your email:
- Course enrolment details
- How many placement hours you are seeking
- Any special interests/passion areas
We welcome project proposals from students who have a particular area of interest.

Perhaps you've got a vision for a workshop, a social awareness initiative or public health campaign - If so, we'd love to hear from you!
We are happy to provide work experience for secondary school students.

To find out more about available opportunities please email Liam Walsh at lwalsh@merri-bek.vic.gov.au

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