By KATRINA BRANDON
SPEAKING out loud, the Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY) Gippsland Youth Advisory Group (YAG) has reached the ears of the 2024 Youth Affairs Council Victoria and received an award for outstanding content in the Rural Youth Awards.
The CMY Gippsland YAG, a group of multicultural youths, has made a name for themselves with the podcast, Double Standards. On the platform, they delve into a wide range of topics, from cultural to local issues within the community, and share their personal experiences.
The Double Standards podcast is currently 10 episodes long on Spotify.
“We got it for our podcast program, which started around February last year. It has been a little over a year, and we have recorded 10 (11 as of October 22) episodes so far,” Program Manager Youth Participation and Special Projects Julia Rovery said.
“It means a lot to us to get this award because the podcast, in the beginning, was an idea of something the YAG, this group of people wanted to develop, and we as staff at CMY went ahead on how we could make this a reality.”
The group works on the podcast in the Moe Library. The group takes turns doing the podcast, and the episodes usually take a conversational or agree-to-disagree approach.
Podcast participant Alaynah Jeffery told the Express, “It is quite unique and provides that different perspective to what people are usually use to hearing. When we are in the podcast, it becomes quite informal, like we are just talking to each other and conversing.”
“We pretty much go with whatever is relevant at that moment,” Ms Rovery added.
Looking into the future, the group is considering options for the podcast, such as bringing on guest speakers.
While the group was shy starting off, they have grown more comfortable as a team working on the podcast.
Ms Rovery said that one of the only challenges the group has faced is figuring out the technical side of podcasting, whether it is editing or using the equipment.
“We are a very close group, so once we have a prompt, it is really hard to get us to stop talking,” Alaynah said.
You can find the Double Standards podcast on Spotify.
