Taking control : young people convening Australia's first youth jury

![CDATA[In 2003 Australia’s first youth jury was convened in Parramatta, near Sydney. It was also, the organisers believe, the world’s first youth jury to be convened by young people themselves. This project was an experiment in deliberative democracy, an opportunity for young people to create a mechanism to enable young voices to be heard. The project team was made up of a group of university students. The author helped the team apply for funding to transfer their classroom experience to an intractable community problem: racial stereotyping of ethnic groups. Once government funds were granted, the author stepped out of the picture. The chapter reflects upon the adults’ responses to the youth leadership of the youth jury, drawing upon interviews with ten of them to establish their perceptions mostly in relation to the jury process. The chapter begins with an explanation of that process and innovations wrought by the project team.]]