UN Youth Australia

UN Youth Australia is a national youth-led organisation that aims to educate and empower young Australians on global issues. We know that young leaders have the vision and passion to create meaningful change within their communities and throughout the world, and aim to equip them with the skills and inspiration to do so.

At UN Youth Australia, we educate over 15,000 young Australians each year about international issues and the role of the UN. We equip a generation of young leaders with the skills and inspiration to make change on these issues and more.

Our activities are run for youth and by youth, and everything we do is aimed at empowering young people to be leaders on the world stage. UN Youth Australia is run entirely by a team of over 1,000 extremely dedicated volunteers, all aged 16-25. We are one of the only organisations brave enough to empower young people with skills in education, in design, in leadership, in organisation, in diplomacy and in negotiation to execute their vision – and we couldn’t be happier with the result!

In February 2013 we surveyed how our volunteers contributed to the organisation, and here’s what we found out: we have over 1,000 volunteers who, if paid at minimum wage, donate over $2.7 million per annum to educating young Australians through the work they do with our organisation.

We run a broad range of peer-education programs that give the students we reach a deep understanding of the social and political issues the world faces today, and the skills and drive to solve them. Within Australia, we organise a National Youth Conference, Evatt (a national Model UN competition), Voice (a national public speaking competition) and a wide variety of state and territory events. Internationally, we coordinate educational tours of Europe, East Timor, the Middle East and New Zealand and the United States of America for secondary school students.

We also work directly with the Australian Government to promote youth empowerment. We are a founding member of the Australian Youth Forum and frequently make submissions to Senate inquiries on topics relevant to youth. Most importantly, in collaboration with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, we nominate an Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations General Assembly, who joins the Australian Delegation to the UN each year as an accredited diplomat bringing the issues facing young Australians onto an international stage.

We are also supported by a large and growing community of alumni.

All of the work that we do at UN Youth is rooted in the belief that young people can and do make a difference in their communities. We foster ideas and innovation, and we give young people the inspiration and support they need to create change.