Encouraging future leaders

Encouraging future leaders

The Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) has helped launch social enterprises tackling social problems that affect people within the CBD.

The free co-working space in Somerset Place has nurtured projects created by 18 to 30-year-olds around issues such as homelessness and communication for international students.

Crepes for Change is a youth-led not-for-profit food truck enterprise that donates a portion of its proceeds towards finding a solution for youth homelessness.

More recently, Crepes for Change has launched The Coffee Cart Changing Lives. Co-founder Natalie Klenner is an FYA member.

The coffee cart runs on the same not-for-profit model and also donates towards finding a sustainable solution for youth homelessness.

FYA community manager Aun Ngo told CBD News that the traditional workplace was changing and young Australians needed to know how to navigate that change.

“Our research is showing that there’s a lot of changes happening globally and locally around the areas of globalisation, automation and more flexible work hours. We try to teach the next generation of young people how to tackle these changes that are coming,” Mr Ngo said.

Meld magazine began almost 10 years ago after founder Karen Poh and co-founders, including Mr Ngo noticed a lack of hard news for international students within the CBD and Carlton areas.

“We found that a lot of news available to international students was very commercial. It was trying to sell them accommodation or education services, so we created an online news outlet with lifestyle stories and real issues that impacted the international student community,” Mr Ngo said.

The Meld editorial team now works from the FYA building two days a week and has partnered with the City of Melbourne to run the annual Melbourne International Student Conference.

FYA also hosts fortnightly talks from both local and international speakers who are experts in the social enterprise field.

“Emily Casey was one of our speakers. She’s a Melburnian who has travelled the world and now runs a few social enterprises in Berlin, so she spoke to our members about her experiences and working in different countries within the social enterprise space,” Mr Ngo said.

Since Labor has been in power …

Since Labor has been in power …

March 20th, 2024 - Evan Mulholland
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