In summary:
- Shepparton Social Innovators program empowers year 9 students to tackle social and environmental issues, turning their ideas into reality through the "Ideas to Life Lab".
- Students brainstorm ideas and pitch solutions like renewable energy kits and mental health games.
- Community partners mentor students and offer support to develop their innovative ideas.
The program enabled young people to work in teams to generate crazy good ideas that showcased new and ingenious ways to care for our planet and enable more people to live, healthy, fulfilling, prosperous and connected lives.
The program took place at the Mooroopna Education and Activity Centre on Thursday 22 and Friday 23 February 2024.
The program hosted over forty year 9 students from four local secondary schools Goulburn Valley Grammar School, Greater Shepparton Secondary College, St Anne's College and Shepparton Christian College.
Day one kicked off with brainstorming, with the students generating ideas focused on addressing issues they were passionate about resolving. On the second day, the students then confidently pitched their transformative ideas to a panel of community partners with representation from Greater Shepparton City Council, La Trobe University, Greater Shepparton Foundation, Watters Electrical Victoria Police, Headspace, Gouge, and Department of Education.
The students' ideas ranged from ‘Lil’ Energy’, creating buildable mini renewable energy kits for children to learn about renewable energy sources, to ‘That’s Mental!’, a cutting-edge computer game with a mission to educate about mental health.
The students received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the partners, with many teams being offered support and guidance in taking their idea to the next stage of development. Local community and business partners are connected into the program so that the team’s crazy ideas can be acted upon.
Council’s Manager Community Wellbeing, Renee Scott, who was a member of the community partner’s panel, spoke highly of the student’s ideas.
“These bold ideas are a glimpse into the bright future young people from Shepparton are shaping. It is such a great initiative to provide these opportunities to students where they can explore their creativity and thinking in safe, collaborative spaces,” she said.
“The program certainly showed young people at their best; leaning into new possibilities, working with others to showcase their own strengths and thinking critically about big issues that matter.”
Term two will see another stage to the program where the ideas are turned into reality, labelled the ‘Ideas to Life Lab’.
For more information about the ideas developed by the students, please visit cicbeyond.com.
