The council has launched a TikTok channel for its Bega Valley Youth Speak project, with the aim of making the most of the platform's popularity amongst young people.

Council's Youth Resilience Officer, Callum Champagne, said TikTok was popular with 18 to 24-year-olds, offering young people a platform to express themselves, be creative and to spark conversations about topics that are important to them.

"We know traditional social media channels like Facebook are not where young people hang out online, so we need to start thinking outside the box if we want to engage with young people," he said.

"Tapping into the power of TikTok's popular creative video format is one of the ways we will be engaging young people to work with us as part of the Youth Speak program.

"Our youth team will be collaborating with young, local TikTok content creators to kick-start the creation and sharing of content to inspire our audience to get creative with their own self-expression.

"There are so many great stories, ideas and views out there. We're hoping the TikTok journey will help build momentum and attract high levels of engagement."

Mr Champagne said young people across the Bega Valley were faced with significant challenges following the bushfires, the pandemic and, more recently, floods.

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"The Youth Speak program is setting out to recognise and give voice to all the challenges that come with growing up in a regional area," he said.

"Those challenges have been heightened by the pressures and uncertainties caused by bushfire recovery, floods and the pandemic."

The major elements of Bega Valley Youth Speak are the Youth Forum in Bega on 27 May and the Future Shaper program, which will begin in early July.

The Youth Forum will bring together young people from across the shire to share their ideas about the future, while Future Shaper will take these ideas and guide and support young people to design, develop and implement real-world change projects in the community.

"We hope that sparking meaningful conversations and engagement on TikTok will allow us to focus on the big themes young people want to explore at the Youth Forum," he said.

"We really want to see as many young people as possible register for the Youth Forum and Future Shaper.

"If you know a 12 to 24-year-old with the drive to help get good things going for young people and make real-world change in our community, please encourage them to sign up."