Department of Families Fairness and Housing Victoria | YouthNav

Helping young people build their life skills

As a young person, finding reliable, trustworthy and relevant information to help gain essential life skills can be challenging. Enter YouthNav – a new online information hub created together with Victorian young people to help navigate their journey into adulthood, building their skills, knowledge and confidence.

YouthNav is a one-stop-shop for information on topics like:

doing a tax return
moving out of home
writing a resume
getting around on public transport
enrolling to vote
finding a GP.

A quote that says Ensuring young people in Victoria have access to reliable, relevant and tailored information on essential life skills has never been more important.

How YouthNav was developed

Young people were involved every step of the way to help shape YouthNav.

We heard from young people across the state to learn about topics that mattered to them and that they wanted to know about. We then considered and incorporated this feedback into the website’s design and development process.

Listening to young people

Community organisation South East Community Links (SECL) worked with more than 160 young people from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds to identify the key topics most critical to them for their independence.

Consultations also took place with financial counsellors and youth practitioners to gather their insights from directly working with young people.

What we learned

Young people told us they are interested in topics such as managing money, housing, employment, wellbeing, transport and voting.

Text that says: There are more than 1.19 million young people aged between 12 to 25 in Victoria.

Collaborating with young people

Following initial, broader consultation with young people, YouthNav was then co-designed with the Victorian Youth Congress. This is a group made up of 20 young people aged 12–25 who work with government to embed a youth perspective in matters impacting young people.

Victorian Youth Congress members were involved in YouthNav's concept design and testing, helping to refine the website’s information, structure and overall look and feel to reflect the needs and interests of their peers.

A quote from Youth Congress Member Jiawen (Yannee) Lui saying that it has been an incredibly eye-opening and empowering experience being part of the Victorian Youth Congress, especially getting the change to co-design and conduct prototype testing of the YouthNav platform.

Launching YouthNav

The new YouthNav website was officially launched in September 2024, at an event attended by the Minister for Youth, members of the Victorian Youth Congress, as well as participants from South East Community Links and partner youth organisations.

View photos of the launch event below.