Melbourne queer youth group Minus18 has won a Premier\u2019s award in National Volunteer Week for making a \u201csignificant contribution\u201d to the community.<\/p>\n
Minus18 co-convenor Micah Scott told Southern Star the group was \u201chugely excited\u201d to win the Young People\u2019s Community Participation Award and take home a cool $5000 prize.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really didn\u2019t expect it at all. We were up against some really strong organisations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredible that the Victorian Government has recognised the importance of providing safe spaces and events for the celebration of queer youth culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Premier John Brumby said volunteers were a vital part of the community and work tirelessly to improve the lives of others.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth the winners and finalists should be very proud of their contribution to their local communities,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Minus18 has around 30 volunteers with an organising committee of 18 members.<\/p>\n
The group has been running for over a decade and holds social events to provide a \u2018safe space\u2019 for teenagers who identify other than straight.<\/p>\n
The group recently held its annual same-sex formal which was hailed a great success.<\/p>\n
Scott said the group will decide in the coming weeks where the award money will go.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll wait until we all meet up and discuss that, but we want to get into schools a bit more to increase the awareness of queer youth issues out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The group was up against SYN FM, the Ethnic Youth Council and YMCA Victoria for the award.<\/p>\n
Scott said Minus18 had been a springboard for many young people to continue making a positive contribution to the community.<\/p>\n
Melbourne High School\u2019s gay, straight alliance group, SOFA, was established by members of Minus18 and the group this week started an anti-homophobia campaign \u2014 Another Perspective \u2014 to coincide with International Day Against Homophobia.<\/p>\n
The campaign hopes to address some of the issues young people face and challenge use of the phrase \u2018that\u2019s so gay\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope this campaign will provoke thought and help those from the straight community think about things from another perspective,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be difficult to grasp the significance of coming out when you aren\u2019t really connected with the queer community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The campaign has been developed in conjunction with Victoria Police. Posters will be given to Melbourne schools and displayed in public locations.<\/p>\n
info: Visit www.minus18.org.au\/homophobia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Melbourne queer youth group Minus18 has won a Premier\u2019s award in National Volunteer Week for making a \u201csignificant contribution\u201d to the community. Minus18 co-convenor Micah Scott told Southern Star the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11207],"tags":[11140],"class_list":["post-34930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-victoria-news","tag-minus18"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n