Youth Development Australia Ltd (YDA) is a public benevolent institution created by a group of leading thinkers and practitioners. YDA is a platform for change and a way of exploring, developing and trialing innovative youth initiatives.
The three core activities of YDA are:
- innovative and pioneering projects and programs for young people
- think-tanks of leading experts in the field
- inquiries on youth issues of national significance
YDA is a national charity with deductible gift recipient status.
YDA Staff
Executive Officer: Janet Jukes
Ms Janet Jukes is the Executive Officer of Youth Development Australia. Janet also works privately as a consultant in the area of social research and strategic change. For the past three years Janet has worked in policy leadership roles for The Salvation Army, Australia Southern Territory. Janet has extensive experience in the community human services sector in both management, service delivery and policy in several fields including youth and family services, homelessness, family violence, community legal sector, and research, and undertaken various leadership and management roles at Crossroads Youth and Family Services, the Fitzroy Legal Service, and the AIDS Council of NSW. Janet is a former Executive Officer of the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria, the Victorian state peak organisation for the youth sector, and former National Secretary for Defence for Children International, Australia. Janet has worked as an academic at RMIT in the Master of Policy and Human Services Program and Lectured in Youth work at RMIT, the Australian Catholic University and Victoria University.
Project Manager: Jonathon Staley
Jon Staley is currently the Manager of Youthworx Media and Executive Producer for Youthworx Productions. Jon comes to Youthworx with a background in education, theatre and film and has a longstanding passion and commitment to working with ‘at risk’ and marginalized youth on creative arts and media based projects.
From 1998 to 2002 Jon taught Drama, English and Media and was Performing Arts Coordinator at Northland Secondary College in Preston. Between 2002 and 2007 Jon taught part time in Youth programs with NMIT TAFE while also working on a range of film, theatre and education projects for Golden Seahorse Productions alongside indigenous film maker Richard Frankland.
Jon is also currently undertaking a reflective practice based PhD with Swinburne University’s Institute of Social Research titled: ‘Creative media engagement for at risk young people – an investigation of creativity, learning frameworks, youth media, social enterprise and voice.’