United States actress Monique Coleman, newly appointed UN Youth Champion, best known for her role of Taylor McKessie in the movie High School Musical has recently visited Australia to celebrate International Year of Youth.
Ms Coleman is travelling around the world to listen to and learn from young people's experiences. Her tour is broadly framed by the United Nations' International Year of Youth theme of Dialogue and Mutual Understanding.
Australia was her first stop on her global tour, spending from the 31 January to 11 February visiting Sydney, Melbourne, and Alice Springs.
During her trip Ms Coleman built bridges between generations and also across cultures. She discussed ways to counter negative stereotypes of young people and addressed issues such as bullying, low self-esteem, and body image.
Her tour in Australia was arranged so that she could meet with as broad a range of young people as possible and it kicked off in Sydney with a meeting with Youth Off the Streets, several visits to schools and online interviews with youth advocacy organisations.
On the 2nd of February Ms Colman filmed public service announcements for the Australian Human Rights Commission’s online Anti-bullying Campaign and visited a school with the Hon. Peter Garrett, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth.
She also visited Granville school with the Australian Human Rights Commission as part of their Human Rights Education Campaign.
In Melbourne, on February 3 and 4, Ms Coleman sat down to discussions with young refugee women organised by the Centre for Multicultural Youth. She also spent time at the Royal Children’s Hospital meeting the children and it's youth advisory council.
Also in Melbourne she facilitated a roundtable discussion with the Reach Foundation, and met with young women who are serving sentences at a youth justice precinct.
Back in Sydney on the 7th, Ms. Coleman undertook activities with Midnight Basketball and Football United. Midnight Basketball is a community-driven national social inclusion program supporting local youth and Football United is a Refugee Youth Soccer Development Program.
On the same day she attended a special fundraising event organised by the NSW Bar Association in support of the Indigenous Barristers Trust, The Mum Shirl Fund, also in Sydney.
From the 8-11 February, Ms. Coleman travelled to Alice Springs where she visited schools including a boarding school for Indigenous students . She also met with mental health services and talked to young women at risk, played street soccer with young people from the aboriginal community and undertook a special broadcast via the School of the Air, which reached many young people living in the remote areas of the Northern Territory.
Ms Coleman thanked all that assisted with her Australian visit, in particular the United Nations Information Centre for arranging the program and also extra support provided by the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition, the Northern Territory Department of Education, NTCOSS and the United Nations Youth Association of Australia.
After Australia she will visit Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Philippines Hong Kong, then through to China, Japan, Southern Asia, Africa and Europe finishing with an end of International Year of Youth, Youth Summit and gala concert in New York.
Photo: Ms Coleman with young people at the Street Soccer match in Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Ms Coleman addressing the NSW Law Society in support of the Indigenous Barristers Trust.