#MeAt16 Social Media Day of Action
On Thursday 19 September, we launched our first social media day of action around #MeAt16. We asked supporters to post a message on their social media reflecting on the universal importance of safety and home for young people during these critical years of life.
Our day of action quickly turned into a week of action, with hundreds of posts across LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. We saw posts from different organisations, sectors, young people and other community members.
Wil Stracke of Victorian Trades Hall posted a video in support of the campaign, with Commissioners from the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People, Liana Buchanan, Principal Commissioner for Children and Young People and Meena Singh, Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, each posting photos alongside Commissioner Luke Twyford of the Queensland Family and Child Commission.
Senator David Pocock and Kylea Tink, Member for North Sydney each posted, as did Michael Rowland from ABC News Breakfast and Sophie Thomson from ABC's Gardening Australia.
In terms of media coverage, on the day of action, the Home Time campaign was featured on ABC News Breakfast, alongside one of our powerful young people with lived expertise. We were also live on ABC NSW Radio and Newcastle Live! featured a story based on our media release, which can be found here.
As part of #MeAt16, supporters of the campaign could also engage with a simple online action on our website, asking federal, state and territory governments to prioritise young people for housing and support services investments. Over 5,000 individual emails were sent out to politicians from the Home Time website, each of which will help to raise awareness of the Home Time campaign and our key asks.
The goal of our day of action was ultimately to create empathy and raise awareness about children and young people experiencing homelessness – with your help, we achieved that. The diversity of stories shared was incredibly personal and moving and we cannot thank each of you enough for having the courage to share your experiences to help us send a strong message to policy and decision makers about prioritising young people.
Check out the hashtags #HomeTime and #MeAt16 across all your social networks to see the spread of supporters working collectively to fix housing for young people.
Vicki Sutton from Melbourne City Mission and Atlas speaking to the ABC News Breakfast Team about the #MeAt16 Social Media Day of Action