WE'RE bored. That was the message from young people speaking at a youth forum held at the Ballarat Town Hall yesterday."X + Y = The Connected Gener@tions, Lets Get Connected 2 Them", brought together a mix of young people, police, representatives from youth organisations, retail associations and service providers.The forum followed council's recent adoption of the Youth Strategy and was designed to generate ideas to engage young people.A group of young people - including school students, a school-based apprentice, full-time workers and girls on work-for-the-dole - answered a series of "burning questions" from forum participants.When the youth representatives were asked what causes frustration the answer was simple. Boredom."I'm always bored, the weekends are boring," one girl said.Others echoed the sentiment, saying there was little to entertain young people in Ballarat out of school hours."The shops close at 4pm on Saturdays and on Sunday most are closed by midday," Ballarat Clarendon College student Cam Hart said.However, it wasn't all doom and gloom.The young people had lots of fresh ideas to give their peers something to do, including music and sporting events."I want a venue similar to 21 Arms that is entirely for underage events," Ballarat Grammar student Melissa Haase said."Something youth-friendly and safe, so you can go out in a party environment and hang out with friends."Melissa also suggested making a bigger deal out of VFL games."A lot of young people go to Melbourne to watch the footy because they don't really know how great our own VFL team is," she said.However, on top of the wishlist for young people was a safe place to call their own.They said the Youth Headquarters (YHQ) facility in Armstrong St Sth was under-utilised and could be better advertised.Ideas to revitalise the space included a music room, reading room, and multi-player, video-gaming facilities.Another option keenly discussed by forum participants was using Civic Hall as a youth-dedicated space.City of Ballarat Community Development manager Peter Appleton said it was something council would consider."Certainly the space was a key element of the discussion today and it's something we'll seriously consider in the future," he said.Overall, most participants said they felt positive about the event and felt the final action plan seemed achievable.Ballarat Library manager Lesley Morgan said they would start with small changes and expand from there."When the library reopens in two weeks what we hope to do is something really simple; with our community notice board actually have a youth section on it."