Well, i wrote a slightly relevant article, why not post it?

So, firstly a little explanation.
I wrote the following article as part of my youth work course. The assignment was to find an organisation of your choice and analyse it. I chose Freeza coz i like it and I’m familiar with it.

The Key Points (titles in caps) are part of the assessment criteria as set out by the course administrator person, not myself. Im just saying this to point out that there were big restrictions on what I could talk about.

Although very boring and basically pointless, its still an ok summary of what freeza is about. Im chucking it up in this here forum coz i think Freeza’s great and i recommend all young Victorian artists learn about it and get involved.

Please feel free to comment/criticise if your interested enough.

ROCk out
- Jonah

Youth Work - Introduction to an organisation.

‘Freeza’ is a program that funds local councils to provide young people with the opportunity to volunteer themselves in the organisation of all-ages, drug and alcohol free events. Developed with the input of young people, the aim of the program is to provide fun and safe environments for young people to enjoy themselves. Events range from skate competitions, rock concerts, dance parties to cultural events. Freeza is mainly aimed towards young persons between the ages of 12-25, with a core focus on those aged 14-18 (Freeza, 2000).

The interesting thing about Freeza is that it is run by young people, for young people. By getting young people involved in the organisation of events they are able to learn organisational skills, feel motivated, gain confidence, learn skills and make friends (Freeza, 2000). Via Freeza’s resources, young people are able to be a part of events as either audience members or part of the show. Young people can be involved by performing, organising the event, promotion, or simply by as audience members to a safe and fun event.

The program is run by the Office of Youth in conjunction with local councils and relies on the support and enthusiasm of young people. The Government funds participating local councils (called ‘Freeza providers’) to support committees of young people to help organise or be a part of events in many ways. The program spans over the areas of inner Melbourne to rural Victoria. There is currently a network of 69 Freeza committees (Freeza, 2000).

Philosophy and Values

The Freeza program is run in conjunction with the Victorian Government’s policy on youth as outlined in Respect: The Government’s Vision for Young People (Allan, 2003) and therefore maintains the central aim to encourage young people to be involved in a wide range of activities, as well as exploring employment opportunities. The policy also encourages young people to interact with the government, allowing for the government to improve its services for young people.

The program upholds an emphasis on the safety of young people, as enforced by the programs’ requirement for security and supervision to be provided at all Freeza events.

The Freeza program also advocates the value of trying to keep young people away from drugs and alcohol, as exemplified by the guideline for all Freeza events to be drug and alcohol free. Persons under the influence of drugs are generally not permitted entry to Freeza events, but are encouraged to access referred counsellors.

The program also values the acknowledgement and celebration of youth culture whilst supporting high levels of motivation, independence and self-confidence amongst young people.

Types of Work with Young People

Freeza offers young people the chance to get noticed as a band or community member, and endorses community leadership amongst young people. The programme attempts to deal with some youth issues by offering young people positive options such as productive, fun and safe recreational and leisure activities, work experience, community leadership and skill development (Freeza, 2003).

As a committee member, young persons will have to undertake one or many of the following elements of event organisation (as specified by the Freeza website, 2000):
Booking bands, venues, production crews, security
Organising promotions, marketing, venue set-up
Stage management, lighting and sound production

Organisation / Youth Workers Approach

Youth workers in the Freeza program are there to provide information about the program, and encourage young people to get involved either as a musician/performer or as an organiser/committee member. The youth worker then provides relevant information and available resources to the committee of young volunteers to assist them in organising the event. Youth workers must also be prepared to arrange meetings with the committee to discuss ideas and planning, and make sure that the committee is constantly aware of the appropriate guidelines and regulations of the Freeza program.

Young bands/performers are encouraged to contact their local Freeza provider/committee and submit a demo in the hope of being selected to perform at an upcoming event.

Therefore, there is a strong emphasis in giving young people a large amount of independence whilst heading them in the right direction.

What Do I Think?

As a young musician, I have found Freeza to be a particularly helpful resource for young people to learn about many elements of event management and performance in the music industry. I have also found the Freeza program to be very beneficial to young artists, gaining them exposure and experience within the field.

Organisations such as Freeza are there to try and promote the expression of youth culture and encourage the well-being of young people. Being an organisation that directly takes in the views and suggestions of young people, I believe that young people are able to relate strongly to Freeza and hopefully learn from its ideology of promoting drug and alcohol-free fun.

In my view, the ability for programs such as Freeza to stimulate youth motivation, self-confidence and leadership amongst young people is to be valued enormously.

References

Allan J (2003) Respect: The Government’s Vision for Young people http://www.youth.vic.gov.au/youth/framework/default (accessed May 2004)

The office for Youth (2000) Freeza Info
http://www.freeza.vic.gov.au/freeza/info/info.htm

Meaker B, Freeza committee member (Personal Communication)

Who is the Push?
http://www.thepush.org.au

(C) Jonah 2004

This entry was posted by jonah on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 10:29 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.