By Casey Neill
Angela Beveridge and Deng Yong Deng are guiding Greater Dandenong youths into a positive future.
They were named the joint winners of the Greater Dandenong Young Leader of the Year Award received the honour at the council’s Australia Day Festival in Dandenong Park, on Thursday 26 January.
“It means a lot,” Angela said.
“You do the work and you don’t really think it has a huge amount of impact on people.
“This says that you may have done something that’s made a difference.”
The Dandenong North 19-year-old juggles university studies with volunteer work for Kids Hope Australia, World Vision, Red Frogs, Dandenong Church of Christ and the council’s Youth Services team.
“My parents, they both work in the healthcare sector so in my family caring for other people has been a really big thing,” she said.
“I think that inspired me to get a bit more involved in my community.
“I’ve always wanted to work in maybe welfare and I’m studying social work at uni.
“I thought it was a good way to learn more about people.”
Deng, 25, from Dandenong, aims to provide a positive role model to youths in the South Sudanese community to counteract the incessant negative examples.
The pharmacist recently formed Southern Sudanese Australian Youth United.
“They need a bit of hope to know they can always try to get somewhere,” he said.
“We understand most of them are losing a sense of belonging.”
Deng said many of the “young ones” were born in Australia but their Sudanese-born parents held onto expectations from their homeland.
“High-risk kids” were his initial target but he soon realised that tapping into the students that had influence over their peers – positive and negative – would be more effective.
“We started running a pilot program,” he said.
“Every Friday night they can really engage and we do a lot of mentoring.”
Read full stories about Ms Smith, Mr Anson, the young leaders and Ms Raphael.
