Global Goals & Frameworks
Local work, global goals: how youth-led health literacy connects to the change the world has already agreed on.
Everything we make, from Voice Packs to youth roundtables, connects to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to the international and Australian frameworks that guide health, gender equality and youth participation. This page shows those links, so schools, councils, partners and funders can see where our work fits.
✦The SDGs we work towards
In 2015, every UN member state, including Australia, adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Six of them sit at the heart of what we do. Under each goal are the targets our work speaks to, and the programmes that do the work.
Targets we contribute to
- 3.4 Promote mental health and well-being.
- 3.7 Universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including information and education.
- 3.8 Universal health coverage, including access to quality essential health-care services.
How we contribute
Health literacy is how young people turn a health system that exists into care they can actually reach. Our resources explain health words, where to go first, what things cost, your rights, and what to say when you’re not being heard.
Targets we contribute to
- 4.7 Ensure all learners gain the knowledge and skills needed for sustainable development, including human rights and gender equality.
How we contribute
We make free, plain-language health education by young people, for young people, and take it into schools, youth services and workshops. Our Youth Research Journal teaches young people to research, peer review and publish.
Targets we contribute to
- 5.1 End all forms of discrimination against women and girls.
- 5.6 Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.
- 5.b Use technology to promote the empowerment of women and girls.
How we contribute
Girls and young women are more likely to have their pain and symptoms dismissed. We help them understand their bodies, describe what’s happening and be believed, and we gift Empower Packs to girls who often go without.
Targets we contribute to
- 10.2 Empower and promote the social inclusion of all, regardless of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or other status.
- 10.3 Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome.
How we contribute
Health information is too often written for one kind of young person. We centre culturally and linguistically diverse and LGBTQIA+ young people, and translate our resources into Hindi, Arabic, Chinese and Vietnamese with bilingual volunteers.
Targets we contribute to
- 16.7 Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.
How we contribute
Young people are experts in their own lives. Through our Youth Executive Council, roundtables and consultations, young people help shape the services and policies that affect them, and we’re youth-led from the top.
Targets we contribute to
- 17.17 Encourage effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships.
How we contribute
We work with brands, health organisations, schools, councils and other youth organisations to get resources and essentials to the young people who need them, and we report back on what our partnerships achieve.
✦Our Five Pillars and the goals
Each of our Five Pillars maps to the SDGs it advances most directly.
| Pillar | What it means | SDGs |
|---|---|---|
| Health Literacy 101 | Understand your body, health language, your rights and where to find support. | 3 Health4 Education |
| Understanding Medical Dismissal | Recognise when you’re not being heard, and find the words to raise it respectfully. | 3 Health5 Gender10 Inequalities |
| Taboo Uplift | Replace stigma, myths and cultural silence with clear, safe information. | 3 Health5 Gender4 Education |
| Diverse Voice Advocacy | Centre CALD, LGBTQIA+ and underrepresented youth in health education. | 10 Inequalities5 Gender |
| Youth-Led Action | Young people leading, co-designing and advocating for the health services that affect them. | 16 Institutions17 Partnerships |
✦Global health frameworks
Beyond the SDGs, international health bodies have set out why health literacy and youth participation matter. These are the frameworks our approach follows.
Shanghai Declaration on promoting health in the 2030 Agenda
Agreed at the 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion, it names health literacy as one of three pillars of health promotion, alongside good governance and healthy cities.
Our link: health literacy is our first pillar and the thread through everything we make.
Resolution WHA77.2: social participation for universal health coverage, health and well-being
Calls on countries to involve communities and civil society meaningfully in health decisions.
Our link: youth consultation, roundtables and co-design put young people’s voices into health decisions.
Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent and Youth Engagement
Sets out what real youth engagement looks like: rights-based, safe, transparent, accountable and well supported.
Our link: we’re youth-led, not just youth-serving, with young people on our Youth Executive Council.
Global Standards for quality health-care services for adolescents
The first standard is adolescent health literacy: adolescents know about their own health and know where and when to get care.
Our link: the Health Navigator and Voice Packs help young people know where to go first.
Youth2030: the UN Youth Strategy
Commits the UN to working with and for young people, and to supporting young people’s access to quality health services.
Our link: resources are made by young people, for young people, and shared through the services they already trust.
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
The global blueprint for gender equality, which includes women’s and girls’ health and the right to health information.
Our link: we especially centre girls and young women, who are more likely to have their health concerns dismissed.
✦Australian frameworks
Our work also supports national and Victorian priorities for health literacy, women’s health and child safety.
National Health Literacy Framework
Australia’s first national framework to strengthen health literacy, developed by the Sax Institute and the Sydney Health Literacy Lab, with a focus on trustworthy information and culturally safe, inclusive resources.
Our link: plain-language, multilingual resources that help young people judge health information, including online.
National Preventive Health Strategy
Names “information and health literacy” as one of its enablers, and promoting and protecting mental health as a focus area.
Our link: prevention starts with young people knowing their normal and when to ask for help.
National Women’s Health Strategy
Its five priority areas include maternal, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and the health impacts of violence against women and girls.
Our link: period care, pain and being believed are at the centre of our Voice Packs and Empower Packs.
Inquiry into Women’s Pain
Of the more than 13,000 people who responded, 71% felt dismissed by health professionals.
Our link: our Understanding Medical Dismissal pillar gives young people the words to be heard.
Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights
Describes the rights of everyone using the Australian health system, including access, safety, respect, partnership, information, privacy and the right to give feedback.
Our link: our resources explain these rights in plain language.
Child Safe Standards
The standards organisations working with children and young people in Victoria must meet to keep them safe.
Our link: our volunteer handbook, consent processes and Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy follow them.
✦How we hold ourselves to it
Lining up with global goals only matters if the work is real. These are the standards we hold.
- 01Youth-led, always. Young people design, write, check and lead our work, not just consult on it.
- 02Accurate and sourced. Our resources are fact-checked against Australian health sources and list them. Health education, never medical advice.
- 03Inclusive by design. We centre the young people most often left out, and translations are checked by a second bilingual volunteer.
- 04Safe. We follow the Victorian Child Safe Standards, get consent before we share anyone’s story, voice or photo, and follow Mindframe guidance on mental health.
- 05Honest about impact. We report what changes for young people, not just how many we reach, and we describe partnerships precisely.
- 06Non-political. We explain how young people can have a say, never who to support.
Work with us on the goals
Schools, councils, health organisations and brands: partner with us to bring youth-led health literacy to more young people.
Official sources: UN Sustainable Development Goals · Shanghai Declaration (WHO) · WHA77.2 (WHO) · Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent and Youth Engagement · Global Standards for quality health-care services for adolescents (WHO) · Youth2030 (UN) · Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (UN Women) · National Health Literacy Framework · National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030 · National Women’s Health Strategy 2020–2030 · Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights · Victorian Child Safe Standards. SDG colours are used to help readers find each goal; this page is not an official UN publication.