Empathise
Who are they?
Define
What is their problem?
Ideate
What is my idea? How will I solve the problem?
Validate
What are my riskiest assumptions?
Prototype
How can I visually demonstrate my idea?
Pitch
Present your final idea to the group.
Young Change Agents' first stage social entrepreneurship program is our 2 or 2.5 day "hackathon-style" workshop where teams of students work to identify problems within their communities and then ideate, validate, prototype, and pitch a social enterprise idea to a judging panel.
With a focus on social enterprise young people that go through the Explorer learn the essential skills for creating change in their community whilst also developing their entrepreneurial mindset, skillset, and toolset.
Educators are also encouraged to join the program and work alongside their students as an immersion, which is the first stage of Young Change Agents' 4-stage teacher capacity-building journey.
We can also deliver this program as a 1-day "taster" version we call Discovery.
The Explorer program works best for groups of 40-50 students (to allow enough time for teams to present back after activities). If you have a larger group, please get in touch with our team to see how we can best support you in delivering the program, which we can deliver as concurrent programs for your school.
The Entrepreneurial Learning Hub can be used by students and teachers alongside the Explorer program to document and share entrepreneurial learning in one place.
It's a digital portfolio for young people to capture their skills development, their work and reflections, enabling them to articulate and share their capabilities.
Students are recognised by gaining badges for their achievements and can unlock advanced learning opportunities as they progress. Teachers can monitor student progress and efficiently mark student assessment once the program is complete.
Explorer in action
Watch the video to find out more about the Young Change Agents Explorer Program.
Learning outcomes
soft skills:
- Increased motivation (demonstrated by leading projects, developing products, participation etc).
- Better understanding of their leadership potential (personal leadership, task leadership, community leadership).
- Increase in feelings of self-efficacy and confidence to develop social entrepreneurship and or small business ideas (i.e. how empowered they felt to make a difference in the community).
- Collaborate with senior consultants and professional mentors in the social enterprise and development space.
- Improved goal-setting strategies.
- Increased understanding and ability to work as part of a team.
- Improved time management skills.
Social impact and enterprise start-up skills:
- Social enterprise (what is it, differentiating between a business/social enterprise).
- Social impact (what is it, how do my actions have an impact).
- Questioning (what are the issues I care about, what are the root causes of these problems).
- Customer empathy mapping (who is my customer, what do they hear, do, think, feel).
- Creating a value proposition (positioning and elevator pitch).
- Market research (creating a survey to test assumptions).
- Prototyping (how can demonstrate my product/service).
- Budgeting (costs and revenue).
- Pitching (communication/persuasion).
"YCA has provided a framework for even the youngest of students to work through the design process as they engage in a range of fun, empowering, solution focussed activities. Aligning beautifully with the Australian Curriculum in my Digital and Design Technologies lessons, YCA empowers students with the opportunity to make a real difference as they identify and design innovative solutions."
Mia Pinnington | Teacher, Coomera Rivers State School
what to expect
Here are some social enterprise ideas arising from Young Change Agent programs below, you can also explore all our youth projects here.
- Music therapy app for people for Alzheimer's
- Edu-Hub - a collaboration tool between students at different schools to assist with difficult homework/assignments.
- Energy-saving lady-bugs - fun animal characters for kids that remind you to turn off the power.
- Granny-2-go - a website that links our older generation with young mums/single mums who need occasional babysitting support whilst they carry out errands.
- PS - a platform that gives students a say in the why, what, and how of their education.
- A website where students can virtually travel the world and teens from other countries to create more cultural understanding and address racism.
- An online, positive media-channel for youth that takes the "scary" out of news and instead provides inspiration for the future.
- Online meal delivery service with food prepared by refugee mothers using school commercial kitchens in off-peak teaching periods
- A website that allows professional mothers to sell baby goods directly to disadvantaged mothers at low prices (with NFP's acting in support).
- D-Games - a games company with 50% and higher representation from people with disability. Games are made to bring to bust the myths on disability in a fun, engaging way.
- An app that allows you to communicate with Emergency Departments in real-time when you have a sporting injury so you can be queued at the hospital pre-arrival.
- 1 for1 coding classes to provide free opportunities for refugees and people with disability to learn how to code.
- Website and service that links farmers with fruit picking and other farm jobs to young unemployed people to provide work opportunities (including removing barriers to starting like transport support etc).
Social enterprise
In our Explorer program students will learn what a social enterprise is, why they exist, types of social enterprises and examples. Some social enterprises they will learn about include:
soft landing
Soft Landing recycles old mattresses that would otherwise end up in landfill. The steel springs are sold to scrap metal, the foam is on-sold and used for carpet underlay, the felt pad and material is turned into boxing bags and the timber is made into kindling and beds for pets. It also provides jobs and traineeships for people.
Bush Medijina
Bush Medijina is an Indigenous-owned business that sells skincare products inspired by traditional botanical knowledge and recipes. Their products are made with sustainable and natural ingredients, and profits are used to support social issues around women in First Nations communities.
The Thankyou Project
Thankyou Group donates 100% of profits to water, food and sanitation projects in developing countries in Asia and Africa. So when you buy their water, muesli or soap/bodycare range all the proceeds after costs of making and selling the products go straight to helping people in need.
Profit with Purpose: The Social Enterprise Model Explained
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