Equity and discrimination has been ranked as the number one issue for youth in Dubbo and beyond.
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Mission Australia's new Youth Survey Report 2020 captured information from 25,800 young people, including 6639 youths from NSW.
For the first time, equity and discrimination was found to be the number one concern for youths between 15 to 19-years-old, followed by COVID-19 in second place and then the environment and mental health.
Mission Australia area manager Central and Far West Megan Boshell said she was not surprised to see equity and discrimination as a concern.
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Ms Boshell, who is based in Dubbo, said concerns around equality had been increasingly raised by clients as an issue.
"This has been a really big year for young people in lots of different ways," she said.
"We've seen the Black Lives Matter movement this year and we're hearing more around gender equity issues and gender diversity issues. It is more apparent in conversations than it might have been with young people a few years ago."
There were two main areas where Ms Boshell believes Dubbo differs from the national statistics: employment and education. The area manager said both were big issues of concern to the young people in the region.
"We need to be giving young people some different options in terms of flexibility for education and different models of education," Ms Boshell said.
"We obviously have the schools in Dubbo, which are great, but looking at different models if formal education is not working for that young person."
Now the results have been released, Mission Australia hopes governments and organisations will use the data to support the development of new policies, like an anti-racism strategy.
"As we move towards looking at different initiatives and different options, and whether that be in terms of employment or education or gender equality, we really need to empower young people to have a voice and be a part of those things that are directly impacting them," Ms Boshell said.