About AYAC

The Australian Youth Affairs Coalition (AYAC) is Australia's non-government youth affairs peak body. Officially launched at our first Annual General Meeting on the 16th of May 2002, AYAC's formation is the result of several years of work by state and territory youth affairs peaks and a number of national youth sector organisations, following the wind-up of the previous peak body AYPAC in 1999.

AYAC aims:

Following an announcement of Federal Government funding in early 2008, AYAC is now in the process of establishing an office and hiring staff, and is expected to be operational by late 2009.

AYAC is an incorporated association. A copy of our constitution can be downloaded from http://www.ayac.org.au/media/constitution.pdf. (You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file.)

Structure

AYAC is governed by a National Representative Council, which can consist of up to 22 members and includes office bearers, one representative from each state and territory youth affairs peak, eight representatives from national youth organisations, two general members, one representative from an indigenous organisation and one representative from a CALD Organisation. All members are elected at the annual general meeting. The members for 2008-2009 are:

Each state and territory youth affairs peak has permanent membership of the National Representative Council. They are:

An Executive Committee elected by the National Representative Council attends to the day to day operations of the organisation while it is unfunded. The members for 2008-2009 are:

Executive Director

AYAC's Executive Director, employed in June 2009, is Meredith Turnbull.

Previous roles Meredith has held include Co-Director of GetUp!, Executive Officer of Twenty10 GLBT Youth Services, Executive Officer of the Youth Affairs Council of WA, Coordinator of the Freedom Centre (WA's only GLBT Youth Service) and a Project Officer with the WA AIDS Council.

During her 13 years of work Meredith has sat on the boards of NGOs involved with the arts, homelessness, social justice and mental health. Meredith is a dynamic change agent and has developed many innovative programs including the inaugural Q&A Leadership Program for GLBT young people.

Meredith's is a passionate advocate for young people's inclusion in the decision-making processes of their communities and has trained and supported thousands of young people with community leadership and peer education skills. Additionally Meredith has developed and implemented community education with hundreds of communities throughout Australia. She has extensive experience as community leader, educator and advocate and is an accomplished public speaker.

Meredith has received numerous awards recognising her contribution to GLBT young people and social justice in Australia, including being named one of AustraliaÕs 25 most influential gays and lesbians. Meredith holds a Bachelor of Social Science and a Masters of Business Administration and completed The Benevolent SocietyÕs Sydney Leadership Program in 2007.

Past Chairpersons