About
Advocacy & System Reform
Some challenges aren’t about individual students - they are built into the system.
Systemic design plays a critical role in whether young people remain engaged in education, training, and employment. PAAN’s advocacy focuses on transition points where disengagement risk is highest, and where practical, evidence-informed solutions can be strengthened through attention to those at the margins.
Our systemic advocacy work includes:
- Identifying where education, training, community services and employment disconnect
- Elevating lived experience to inform policy and decision-making
- Partnering to co-design practical solutions with services and government
- Developing evidence, recommendations and reform proposals that support better pathways
We work towards systems that are flexible, person-centred and grounded in real life.
Current advocacy initiatives
Initiative 01
Transport access & youth pathways
Reliable transport predicts whether a young person can stay in school, complete training or access work experience. In outer suburban and regional South Australia, public transport is often limited, infrequent or unaffordable.
Focus areas
Our work includes:
- Advocating for youth-focused transport planning in growth corridors, starting with Northern Adelaide
- Proposing Last-Mile Shuttle models to industrial and employment precincts
- Encouraging councils, state government and community organisations to trial local solutions
- Collecting youth testimony to shape policy recommendations
Want to be involved?
As a small organisation with a big mission, we rely on shared leadership, partnership and community voice to drive change that lasts.
- Local government
- Schools and community organisations
- Employers and industry groups
- Families, youth workers and young people with lived experience