The South Australian Student Representative Council (SA SRC) was created by South Australia's inaugural Commissioner for Children and Young People, Helen Connolly.

Established in 2022, it provides students in years 10, 11 and 12 with an opportunity to partner with decision-makers and community leaders to create change in their local neighbourhoods. Each annual cohort is invited to attend a Summit in March to learn essential skills for advocacy and activism, including media awareness, movement-building and the nature of democratic action. The students are invited to identify issues that matter to them and are presented with opportunities to discuss those issues in-depth with each other and with South Australian Members of Parliament who attend the Summit, thereby creating a direct connection between each.

Following the Summit, students are provided with direction on next steps, which include polling their peers to ensure they’re being truly representative and gathering crowdsourced ideas that may assist in their campaign.

Each of the major campaigns developed by the SA SRC has successfully launched a petition calling on the South Australian government to take action on issues which matter to young people across the areas of environment, education, mental health, wellbeing, civic engagement, safety and accessibility.

Each campaign group meets online regularly and determines their actions for change. They set up meeting with other relevant organisations creating change in their area of interest, providing for students to establish pathways for future involvement. These organisations will often partner with campaign groups and provide further background information. Collaborations to date include Green Adelaide, Keep South Australia Beautiful, Make it 16, the Foundation for Young Australians, and Democracy Co. as examples.

Campaign groups reach out to the relevant State Members of Parliament to personally present their petitions and discuss their campaign aims and demands. From these meetings real-world changes have been successfully achieved. For example, the SA SRC Fitness for Free campaign, which ran throughout 2023 and 2024 called for school students to be granted free access to council recreation centres as a means of improving their mental and physical wellbeing.

As a result of this campaign the scope of grant funding was expanded to include free access to council-owned recreation centres for secondary students. The South Australian Student Representative Council is the first of its kind to operate at scale with an active approach to viewing young people as the experts in their own lives and the primary drivers of their student led campaigns. Students determine the content of official briefs, generate publicity and act as spokespersons to local and state media outlets.

The SA SRC provides a platform through which young people learn how to advocate and also have opportunities to apply what they've learnt. We have seen how this grows confidence in young people and their belief in their own abilities to talk about the issues that matter to them and be able to persuade 'important' others to their points of view.

The initiative has been very well supported by schools and community and government leaders who have shown willingness to meet with young people and listen to what they are saying. They have also indicated that they will be taking their issues forward in whatever ways they can. The initiative has not only had an impact amongst decision makers who take young people's points of view more seriously, it is also cultivating a group of young South Australians who understand how to have their voices heard on the issues that matter to them most. This offers a tremendous amount of potential for future situations where young people's voices are not only sought but are embedded into governance in ways that count.

This national award would showcase the initiative to others throughout Australia and perhaps be a model for other state jurisdictions. It has enormous potential to be a joined up movement that becomes a stepping stone to national entities who are also about promoting student voice such as the Australian Council for Student Voice. It aligns seamlessly with what the ACSV is advocating for as an organisation and lends itself to be the 'poster child' for student voice advocacy. Details of campaign including full campaign briefs can be downloaded from the following address: https://civicsandcitizenshipsa.com.au/young-people/sa-src/