ASRC member empowers youth

The ASRC’s new Youth Empowerment Officer, Potal* wants to “do anything possible to help a young person achieve something in their life”. His role is to engage more young ASRC members in the activities, programs and services the organisation offers. In taking this job on, he is also the second ASRC member to become an ASRC employee.

Young Hearts

“I’ve got a natural connection with young people. That’s why I decided to do it and the ASRC give me the opportunity,” Potal says. Since he started at the Innovation Hub in October, he has visited other youth-based organisations across Melbourne to find out about their programs.

But Potal says he mainly needed to understand what the young members want from the ASRC.

“My goal is to get those young people in the asylum community involved with the centre and to get a good education and work and set up something in life that they want to do.”

“I’ve called about 200 kids in the database to speak to them about what they are doing at the moment and what they really want to do,” Potal says. “I find out that a lot are interested in education, work and creative activities. About 30 kids come in regularly to the Hub and I want to really increase this number.”

Potal says young ASRC members told him the type of activities they would enjoy, ranging from outings, group lunches and the movies.

“They want to mix it up … to talk to each other and go outside the centre; they are young and want to enjoy things,” he says. “I want to improve the activities and make sure as many kids as possible can come. I am planning a trip to the coast so they can see the beaches in Victoria – a lot of them want to do it.”

Out of these conversations with young members, Potal is also thinking of creating a small space within the Innovation Hub where “they can come to talk, sing and play music”.

Giving Back

As Potal aims to engage with and empower young ASRC members, his own ASRC experience could serve as inspiration to them.
“The past two years I was working here as a volunteer and to be working for the ASRC is something I wanted to do because they helped me out,” Potal says.

“They send me to school to study a diploma of youth work at VUT. They give a chance to coach the ASRC soccer team. I wanted to do my C-licence to coach soccer and they helped with that. I make a lot of connections through the ASRC and I want to give back.”
Although it has been a difficult three years as Potal waits for his refugee claim to be assessed and worries about his family in Guinea, he is “lucky because I gained work rights”.

“It was a real struggle to get my head right when I couldn’t work,” he says. “Mentally working at the ASRC is giving me strength. You are working in an environment you like. People are very nice. You are learning every day. It’s good to be around that sort of thing. I can learn and then help other people too.”

Talk it Up

Potal is excited about the prospect of more ASRC youth members discovering what the organisation can offer them, and he knows much of the appeal will come from word of mouth.

“Once they go back home and tell their friends that it is good and interesting here, then their friends will come too. They talk to each other,” he says.

“My goal is to get those young people in the asylum community involved with the centre and to get a good education and work and set up something in life that they want to do.”

*His real name has been hidden to protect his identity