Introducing the YAWG website

February 2020

The YAWG website (www.yawg.info) has been developed by NDRI researchers as a resource for service providers who work with young Aboriginal women and girls. It aims to share the voices and stories of young Aboriginal women about their experiences around fighting, drinking and offending, and to help service providers better understand how to support and engage with them.

The website is based on the findings of the YAWG (Young Aboriginal Women and Girls) project, formally known as Fighting, Alcohol and Offending: Interventions Targeting Aboriginal Girls. This research looked into the experiences of young Aboriginal women and girls around drinking, fighting and offending as well as their experiences of accessing services for support around these and other issues.

In the words of the young Aboriginal women and girls who took part in the YAWG project, the resulting website invites service providers ‘behind their curtains’, to witness the complexity of their lives and to learn more about the challenges they face every day. It includes audio and video stories, quotes from interviews with young women, the final report from the project, and a link to a webinar summarising the research.

The website has three primary purposes. Firstly, as a professional development resource; secondly, as a tool to use when building engagement and talking with young women about complex issues; and finally as a resource to consider when planning for organisational development. The ‘how to use this website’ section provides ideas on how to use the website for these purposes.

The YAWG research was funded by Healthway and conducted by NDRI in collaboration with Wungening Aboriginal Corporation.

Access the YAWG website here.