Youth Advisory Board
The Youth Advisory Board (YAB) was formed as part of a three-year project commencing in 2022 to create a collective bridge between young people and the health sector, ensuring youth voices directly influence sexual health promotion priorities, decisions, and co-developed initiatives.
The YAB's purpose was to empower diverse young people to share knowledge, build leadership and advocacy skills, and provide actionable insights to ensure programs, research, and policies are relevant, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of Australian young people.
An important outcome of the project will be the development of a National Strategic Framework for a multi-sector and integrated approach to sexual health promotion and education with young people, Building an Integrated Approach to Supporting Sexual Health Promotion and Education among Young People, funded by the Australian Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
Project overview
The ARCSHS YAB brought together 13 young people from across Australia to help guide and inform research into sexual health promotion and education.
It explored ways to enhance the capacity of parents/carers, the community sector, and schools to better engage in sexual health promotion and education that will support young people.
Over the course of the project, the YAB met on multiple occasions annually in-person and online for training, workshops, planning and conferences.
YAB membership provided young people with opportunities to develop skills in peer-led sexual health promotion and research, thereby advancing ambitions outlined in the First National Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmissible Infections Research Strategy.
YAB training day group photo
How the YAB came together
The YAB was developed and recruited in partnership with YACVic. Expressions of interest were promoted and advertised via a dedicated project webpage and social media to specifically target young people. Applications were reviewed by research team members from ARCSHS and YACVic, and by a youth member in the sector.
Why is a YAB important?
Young people consistently report that current approaches to sex and relationships education (RSE) do not adequately reflect their lived realities, questions, or support needs. Our Youth Advisory Board (YAB) is embedded within our projects to directly address this gap.
The YAB provides strategic advice on project implementation and works alongside our research team and industry partners to identify what is missing across the sector, where current approaches fall short, and what young people want from sexual health and education. Their collaboration informs the development of evidence-based recommendations, action plans, and a best-practice framework for youth sexual health and wellbeing.
Sex education has always been taboo, but within that there is so much more to discuss. Young people mean business, we know what we want to learn, so teach us it at face value.
Youth summit
The YAB organised and hosted the 2025 National Youth Sexual Health and Wellbeing Summit in Adelaide on 15 September 2025.
Young people and key stakeholders from across the youth sexual health sector were invited to participate and contribute to the Summit. As a key component of a national project to build a more integrated support system, the event created meaningful dialogue between young people and key stakeholders, including Senator Charlotte Walker, SHINE SA CEO Holley Skene, and Sexual Health Victoria.
Group photo from the Youth Summit of the presenting YAB members, ARCSHS team, SHINE SA and Sexual Health Victoria representatives
There’s always things we can improve, that is inevitable. Reaching the right people is the hard part, and I think we did it well, and each consideration embeds the needs of young people and is heavily associated with our values.
The YAB also facilitated a discussion panel on what supports are needed for young people’s sexual health in Australia and strategies to develop a framework for comprehensive action on sexual health.
This discussion panel was part of ARCSHS' session (Building Multi-Sector Collaboration to Support Young People’s Sexual Health: Challenges and Opportunities) at the 2025 Australasian Sexual and Reproductive Health Conference. This included a Q&A with the sector audience, as part of a call to action for young people’s sexual health and themes from the National Youth Sexual Health and Wellbeing Summit.
It was confirming to have the support of other young people for our recommendations. It was great to hear how the implementation of the recommendations would improve their sexual health and wellbeing.
The YAB also supported the Secondary Students and Sexual Health Survey (SSASH) and provided valuable insight towards youth related ARCSHS projects and publications, as well as contributing towards other youth projects, including the upcoming On Your Terms: Youth survey on consent and sex ed, run by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
The YAB additionally provided feedback on research conducted by the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at La Trobe on young people’s alcohol consumption. Their feedback has been central to ensuring that these projects reflect the experiences, needs and priorities of young people.
Youth Summit recommendations
The YAB developed a set of 15 recommendations based on months of consultation, discussion, and lived experience expertise. These recommendations have been designed to reflect the realities, needs, and aspirations of young people and to protect them from misinformation, educator discomfort, stigma, and fear. These recommendations provide guidelines for a national sexual health and wellbeing framework that centres young people’s needs, autonomy and right to comprehensive sexual education.
IN OUR IDEAL WORLD, WE NEED...
- Everyone with a duty of care to young people to be equipped to answer their questions or provide appropriate referrals.
- To support caregivers with school-aged young people to gain the skills to access and apply sexual health resources.
- Young people to have online resources that are safe, reliable and factual, where they can submit anonymous questions for expert advice.
- Cultural, religious and spiritual practices to be included and inform tailored resources and expert advice.
- LGBTQIA+ people included at every step of sex, sexual health, relationship and consent education.
- Practical education about contraception and STI prevention, transmission, treatment, and stigma that reflects contemporary sexual experiences.
- To teach that all types of bodies, including people with disabilities, can experience pleasure.
- To teach about sexism and rape culture and how gender impacts sex and relationships.
- To teach about menstrual and sexual health so young people can recognise symptoms and address concerns early.
- To enhance literacy, understanding, and skills around navigating digital sexual content safely.
- Realistic and relatable information that is accessible to, and reflects what young people are experiencing at different ages and stages of development.
- Empower young people to advocate for their needs and rights around sexual health and wellbeing.
- Data that is responsive to the constant changes in contemporary sexual relationships to inform initiatives that support young people’s sexual health and wellbeing.
- Young people to be actively involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of sexual health and wellbeing education, policies, and systems that affect them.
- A framework that informs best practices around sexual health and wellbeing for young people and develops a standard of practice that is applied at the national level.
We saw the recommendations as an incredible opportunity to promote our ideas to improve young peoples sexual health. We considered each recommendation carefully and each was decided on by a diverse group in attempt to make them as appropriate as possible for a wide range of young people.
Upcoming projects
Online Youth Webinar
The YAB will host an online webinar in April 2026 to revisit the Youth Summit recommendations and explore how they can be implemented across the youth and community sector.
Targeting professionals in sexual health, education, and youth services, the interactive session will prioritise open discussion and Q&A, and encourage open discussion about which recommendations matter most across different sectors, where strengths and gaps exist, and what barriers professionals such as sexual‑health workers, teachers, and educators are facing as they try to maintain momentum for change.
YAB members
Over the course of this three-year project, our YAB contributing members, whose levels of involvement and duration of participation varied, each played a meaningful role in shaping its success.
ARCSHS gratefully acknowledge and sincerely appreciate the contributions of the following individuals:
- Samuel Carter
- Gabbi Colloff
- Jesse Cotter
- Momoko Ferguson
- Ben Goninon
- Ruby Hartly
- Is Hay
- Kurin LeLean
- Rania Omar
- Matthew Oxford
- Alexis Pallister
- Callum Sinclair
- Dylan Sparrow
Partners and Funding:
We are grateful to have partnered and collaborated with the following groups; Sexual Health Victoria, True QLD, SHINE SA, Sexual Health Quarters WA, Family Planning Tasmania, Family Planning Welfare Association NT, YACVic, Family Planning Australia.
ARCSHS Youth Advisory Board is funded by the Australian Department of Health, Disability and Ageing as part of the project: Building an Integrated Approach to Supporting Sexual Health Promotion and Education among Young People.
These groups not only provided important input and funding but have supported young people in advocacy for improved sexual health and wellbeing as well as bringing more awareness to this topic.