Joshua Patrick - BioI have spent my life in remote and regional towns throughout WA and the NT. I now live in the small Wheatbelt town of Northam. I have been a young carer for my sister, Charlotte, for over a decade, providing intense, nursing-level care for her around the clock.My life and outlook has been significantly shaped by my caring role, as well as the poverty and myriad of other challenging life experiences I have faced throughout my childhood, including the devastating house fire my family experienced in July 2023.My unique voice, positive outlook and passion, shaped by my caring role and challenging life circumstances, has been shared in a TEDx talk I presented at just 14; in Canberra at the National Youth Forum and Civic Engagement Youth Advisory Group; at various youth and Department of Education conferences; in Carers WA Youth Advisory Group meetings; during the monthly online national SWAN sibling support group I facilitate; and on Department of Communities and other media and organisational resources. In March 2024, I travelled to Canberra as the Western Australian representative on the 'Civic Engagement Youth Advisory Group'. During this trip, I, along with the other Australian state and territory representatives, proposed initiatives using our diverse lived experiences, on strategies to promote youth input and engagement in democratic processes and ideas on ways to more actively involve youth in their communities and the youth-related initiatives and decisions within their local areas.In future, I have aspirations of becoming a doctor, biomedical engineer or politician (ideally in health). However, regardless of the career path I pursue, my deep passion for driving supports and initiatives to mitigate the countless social, and often generational, effects of disadvantage will forever burn within and prompt me to continue to advocate for change!