Leave it to Z
Elevating the needs and voices of young people in preparation and recovery from emergencies.
This program is available is South Australia.
Red Cross is committed to assisting all Australians to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.
Emergencies and disasters occur all over the world and impact everyone, young and old alike, traditionally young people have not been part of the decision-making in emergency planning.
Young people have a wide range of strengths and experiences that are not currently being used in State disaster resilience and recovery planning. At the same time, young people are particularly at risk to emergencies and benefit from support to develop their ability to cope with them.
That’s why we launched Leave it to Z
A co-design project that is exploring the ideas of young people between ages 10 – 25, about what’s important to them while preparing for, responding to and recovering from emergencies.
In Stage 1 of Leave it to Z we asked children and young people how they saw their role in planning for emergencies. They told us what they need to feel empowered to make decisions and plan for an emergency – whether it happens in their home, school or wider community.
We want to build the emergency management sector’s engagement with young people so they better understand the perspectives and needs of young people through the preparedness and recovery journey.
How does Leave it to Z work?
Leave it to Z Stage 1 hosted a series of interactive workshops involving interviews, creative activities, group workshops and games. The aim of this was to engage our Generation Z’s in designing innovative solutions to emergency preparedness and recovery planning.
From these workshops and other engagement, Australian Red Cross produced the Youth Perspectives Road Map and the Conversations Report.
Leave it to Z stage 2 commenced in December 2021. We will implement initiatives from the Youth Perspectives Road Map. Through further workshops and engagement with children and young people, along with the State emergency management sector, we will co-design new strategies for change and create pathways for young people to be involved in emergency planning, before, during and after disaster.
I want to be involved with Leave it to Z
Conversations report
The Conversations Report shares what we learned during the Leave it to Z project so far. We share our key learnings, as well as the approach and process we used to understand how to build the emergency resilience of young South Australians. We hope that this report will be helpful for anyone wanting to engage young people in emergency resilience, or wanting to have effective learning conversations with young people.
Case Study
Throughout our work with young people in the Leave it to Z project and the Community Led Resilience project we supported a group of primary school students to engage in community level emergency preparedness activities.
This project was funded under the Natural Disaster Resilience Program by the South Australian State Government and the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs. Views and findings associated with this project are expressed independently and do not necessarily represent the views of State and Commonwealth funding bodies.
Helping children and young people cope with crisis
Information for youth practitioners.
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