We are thrilled to announce that two of our 2024 Young Ambassadors (YAs), Denzel and Jules, have respectively been nominated for 2025 Young Australian of the Year in South Australia and the Northern Territory for their exemplary work in the youth advocacy space. We spoke to them about their passion for raising youth voices, their highlights from the program, and what comes next.
At just 19 years of age, Young Ambassador Jules already has a number of achievements under her belt. She is a passionate advocate for issues affecting young people in her hometown of Darwin, including mental health, identity and youth homelessness. Named 2024 Darwin Young Citizen of the Year, Jules represents the Northern Territory on a national scale as a UNICEF Australia Young Ambassador. She served as vice-chair of the 2023 NT Youth Round Table, was a member of the first-ever Department of Education’s NT Youth Voice Peak Group and the City of Darwin Youth Advisory Committee, working to represent youth interests at the local government level.
Her passion for advocacy started when she was 16 years old and applied for her first volunteer role with NT Youth Week on a whim. “As a young, Filipino person, I didn't grow up in an environment where I saw a lot of people like myself,” she said. “I have three younger sisters so it’s important to me that I could create opportunities and platforms for them to be heard.”
While she already had a strong background in advocacy work before becoming an UNICEF Australia Young Ambassador, Jules says the 18-month program not only helped her hone her skills through mentorship and training opportunities, but saw her forge meaningful connections with other like-minded people around the country, something she said was hard to do in a small city like Darwin.
Denzel, who at 18 years old is just about to finish Year 12, has already achieved so much despite his young age. After witnessing the effects of climate change including severe droughts, floods, and record-breaking heat in his remote hometown of Oodnadatta in far-north South Australia, the high school student was inspired to start advocating for climate action and encourage other young people to become climate champions.
After joining his state’s Student Representative Council, Denzel went on to become a First Nations spokesperson at the Department of Human Services and is now South Australia’s climate youth spokesperson.
During his time as an UNICEF Australia Young Ambassador, Denzel has continued to be a passionate advocate for climate action, contributing to the 2023 National Child and Youth Statement on Climate Change, which he presented to key government stakeholders ahead of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.
“The Young Ambassador journey with UNICEF Australia has opened up so many doors and opportunities,” he says. “It's not every day you have a decision maker sending you an e-mail [asking you] to represent children and young people's voices.”
"Throughout my YA journey... I started to get recognised, not only nationwide but worldwide,” he says. “I typically have professors from the United States and the UK emailing me for my insights on the different environmental impacts and concerns we have for young people over here.”
"We just want our voices to be heard. We don't want to be heard in silence. We want to be at the table and not on the menu."
A bright path ahead
While she missed out on the top prize amid tough competition, Jules is still proud to be nominated for NT Young Australian of the Year. But she emphasised that awards and accolades aren’t her priority when it comes to her advocacy work. “I do it for people who aren’t represented in the areas where they need to be represented, and I feel very lucky to have a platform where I'm able to create those opportunities and create those avenues,” she said.
“I think it's just a testament to the work I'm doing and it's nice to know that it's being seen and it’s having an impact.”
Denzel, who also missed out on the top honours, says he was “surprised” to even be nominated for SA Young Australian of the Year. “I just hope this will give me a platform to bring attention to some of the environmental causes that really matter for our future,” he says.
After an 18-month run, Jules and Denzel will be finishing up as Young Ambassadors at the end of 2024, with a new cohort to be announced in early 2025.
Looking ahead, Jules says she will continue working on establishing more avenues for other young people from diverse backgrounds to receive mentoring and advocate for issues they care about, including through the performing arts.
One way she hopes to do this is through a new podcast series she is developing with social enterprise Pathfinders NT and the Northern Territory Government, called Heart to Heart: Stories Unleashed. “I think it's so important to give young people that space... so that they can create the change they want to see,” she says.
"We hear that young people are the future. But I would say that young people are the now. The decisions that are being made are impacting young people right now and when we get older and we finally get into those spaces to create change, we're going to have to change everything if it doesn't work for us."
For his part, Denzel is looking forward to studying law and politics at university. “One day I could be making decisions on behalf of children and young people and representing the voices of children and young people nationwide,” he says.
The Young Ambassadors Program
UNICEF Australia’s Young Ambassadors volunteer program gives young people aged 15-24 the opportunity to speak up for children’s rights. Recruited from across Australia, they are trained in leadership, government advocacy, media and communications, and engaging with children and young people.
The Young Ambassadors bring their skills and lived experience to the issues UNICEF Australia advocates for, including climate change, digital wellbeing, and First Nations justice, and the program empowers young people to speak up on these issues at a local, national and international level.
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