Guns and roses - young people leading the way

Matching brutality with brutality will not provide long-term solutions. Pointing the finger at young people will fail to address the deeper causes and tragic consequences of these riots.

Rather, we should regard the events in London and other parts of Britain as a call to action about how we are responding to the disenfranchised, the alienated, the excluded, the marginalised.

So what happens next?

The stark reality may be that these young people are neither helpless victims, nor crying for help, nor making a political statement. Violence is just one way of acting out a deeply embedded lack of a sense of real purpose and meaning.

With 1 in 4 young people in Australia reporting mental health problems, one wonders why we haven't called out our own "youth epidemic".

The lack of belonging and connectivity to their communities evident in these young people's actions reinforces the absolutely critical role of parents, teachers and mentors in the lives of young people.

Now is the time not to vilify, but to demonstrate our wholehearted commitment to and trust in our young people. We need to set high expectations and provide genuine opportunities, not diversionary or containment strategies, for young people as learners in school.

We need to ensure they can vividly see themselves as valued and contributing citizens in the life of their communities.

I am fortunate and privileged every day to meet and work with young people from diverse backgrounds, experiences and walks of life the length and breadth of this country. In nationwide programs at FYA such as NAB Schools First; IMPACT - our Indigenous youth leadership program; Young Social Pioneers, which supports bold ideas and people like Chris Raine and his Hello Sunday Moring binge drinking prevention initiative; Worlds of Work; and, soon to be launched, Young People Without Borders, a global volunteering program for 18 year olds, we have thousands of young people who have innovative ideas for how to improve their schools, their communities and the world.

These young people are often frustrated by the apathy and lack of support of adults and the institutions of government and business, who frankly won't invest in or recognise them until they are 'grown up'.

Britain today is a wakeup call to us all but we have all the ingredients for a very different scenario here.

If, as a nation, we decide to invest financially, socially and fearlessly in unleashing the courage, imagination and will of our young people we have nothing to fear and much to gain.