Young people and youth workers are leading and empowering communities to tackle these issues, so join me as I highlight some of their amazing efforts.

A team of young people was at the centre of Youth Affairs Council Victoria's submission to the Royal Commission into Victoria's mental health system. In their consultations with young people from rural and regional areas, they heard about the impact of isolation, poor employment opportunities, financial insecurity, lack of housing and stigma as key factors into a young person's mental wellbeing. These problems are generally more entrenched and intense in rural and regional areas.

Young people are also leading the way via initiatives such as Live4Life, where students are trained to identify and refer concerns on mental health, how to have peer-to-peer conversations, and to create fun and inclusive events and projects to raise awareness of mental health in their communities.

As for Mallacoota ... young people there and in other devastated areas are already at the forefront of creating innovative and inclusive responses in the bushfire recovery. We applaud their courage and commitment, and encourage all agencies involved to support young people's leadership and involvement in rebuilding their communities.

Young people don't want to be forced to leave their communities to find affordable accommodation and/or jobs that will allow them to afford safe and stable housing.

In Mildura, I met young people who have led and co-created Home Base Mildura, which provides marginalised young people a place to be safe and build meaningful connections and skills.

In Warrnambool, I met with young people at the Foyer, run by Brophy Family and Youth Services, where residents aged 16-25 are provided an affordable way of renting independently. The program also develops, with the young people, personalised, individualised plans to improve their education and employment pathways and break the cycle of poverty and unemployment.

Young people in Warrnambool and Mildura have provided incredibly insightful and positive recommendations for improving the dire housing situations in their areas, which are now at the core of our soon-to-be-released Youth Homelessness Report, which will be submitted to the current inquiry into Homelessness in Victoria. Their recommendations include programs to support young people with barriers that might affect their tenancies, like the Sustaining Tenancies At Risk program run by The Bridge Youth Services in Shepparton, and creating better connections with real estate agents as Brophy is doing in the South West.

The Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health is working with young people, youth workers and educators on the Sexual Health Out and About initiative. SHOUT is a series of campaigns and projects to assist services that engage with rural young people around their sexual and reproductive health.

SHOUT and YACVic are calling on rural and regional workers to take part in the My Town Condom Count 2020 to collect data about condom accessibility, and advocate for strategies to improve access to sexual health services for rural young people.

As part of YACVic and CERSH's Sexy and Safe project, young people in the Mallee told us fewer than 1 in 5 young people are using condoms and other sexual hygiene products. Young people led those conversations, so the responses were very frank, and proactive with ideas for improving their access to sexual health information and services.

Young people are leading the drive for climate action and care for the environment. Many School Strike 4 Climate protests last year were led by rural and regional students across the country.

We must all take young people seriously, including their fears for the future, and their demand that our leaders do better. This includes encouraging their participation in public debate, policy development and innovation. Our communities are stronger when young people's needs, perspectives and contributions are taken seriously.

There is a clear need and opportunity to invest in more generalist youth workers in regional and rural areas, to support young people in this kind of important work, and we're in discussions with the Victorian government to make this happen.

YACVic will also continue to highlight, celebrate and support young people in their endeavours and advocate for the resourcing and support they need to create better futures. Please join us in supporting and recognising the young people taking action in your communities. And get in touch with us if you know of or are a young person who's on this journey.

Katherine Ellis is chief executive of Youth Affairs Council Victoria, the peak body and leading policy advocate for young people in Victoria.