Register for the Be Your Own Boss youth program

Be Your Own Boss is an innovative new program series encouraging young people to bounce back from the impacts of COVID, by learning valuable enterprise skills and making a difference in their community.

The program will launch this July, with young people aged between 12 - 25 in Bayside and Kingston invited to take part. The program is in celebration of 100 years of Rotary in Australia and aims to build the next generation of social entrepreneurs and future leaders.

The Victorian Government’s Commission for Children and Young People describes the massive impact on the lives of Victorian youth across safety, mental health and education as a result of Melbourne’s COVID lockdown, revealing a picture of growing uncertainty and isolation, combined with diminished visibility in our young people.

Young people have also been disproportionately affected in their employment, with more than half of Victorians aged between 18-24 unemployed during the height of the lockdown. Promisingly, research by the Foundation for Young Australians shows young people with enterprise skills are 17 months ahead of their peers in gaining full time employment.

To tackle this challenge, in partnership, not-for-profit social enterprise Young Change Agents and Rotary, led by the Rotary Club of Brighton, will aim to create the next generation of social entrepreneurs through the ‘Be Your Own Boss’ workshop series.

The series launches in July and gives young people the opportunity to create business solutions that tackle social problems, aiming for outcomes that improve communities, provide people access to employment and training, or help the environment.

The Be Your Own Boss workshops will empower young people with the mindsets, skill sets and toolsets to become social entrepreneurs and catalyse change.                                                          

More than 200 young people aged 12-17 from four local high schools, and 100 young people aged 18-25 across Bayside and Kingston, will participate. Young people will start with an Explorer program, in July, where they will develop enterprise skills through identifying a community problem and reframing it as an opportunity in the form of a social enterprise.

The next-stage Youth Incubator (YINC), in September, will see young people working with experts and attending masterclasses to test, model and pitch their idea. The workshops will culminate in a Community Showcase, in October, where young people will present and celebrate their work with a prominent panel of industry and community.

The Rotary Club of Brighton and Young Change Agents will host the workshops across Bayside and Kingston and are focussed on involving young people from diverse backgrounds, experiences and skill sets into the program series.

With the 18 – 25 year old Explorer two day workshop kicking off on July 24th, we’re looking for expressions of interest from young Baysiders to sign up to be part of this opportunity. Skills gained will help youth see problems as opportunities through social entrepreneurship and give them the confidence and skills to dream big, achieve through entrepreneurship and create social impact.

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The Be Your Own Boss initiative is being generously supported by The Rotary District 9800 Foundation, Flora and Frank Leith Charitable Trust, Bayside City Council, Elwood Community Bank and Bendigo Bank Brighton.