Student’s innovate with Crazy Ideas

A GROUP of bright young people have been busy generating ideas for the community.

Knows as Crazy Ideas College, the program saw teams from Mount Rowan Secondary College, Federation College and Ballarat Grammar to submit ideas to address specific social issues.

Students developed concepts for apps, products, and projects to promote mental well-being, environmental stewardship and the cultivation of healthy relationships.

The program aims to equip youth with skills, confidence and connections to plan social change.

Head of communications at CIC, Zoe Burrows, said this project is important for young people and their communities to breathe life into ideas.

“It’s about giving young people the agency to connect with people who can assist them in sharing their great ideas,” she said.

“Our founder Kieran realised that communities and government are really interested in what young people have to say and that young people have a lot to say.”

In a bid to involve young people in community matters, the City of Ballarat, Committee for Ballarat and Ballarat Tech School financially backed the program.

A group of community partners from these organisations as well as Ballarat Health Services, Ballarat Community Health, Headspace and other entrepreneurial businesses also took part in the initiative.

“It was exciting to work with the community partners to assist these young people as they developed their brilliant ideas,” Ms Burrows said.

After devising their concepts, the teams of young innovators pitched their plans to the group of community representatives.

They then got back some constructive critique as well as support to develop the student’s ideas into scalable models.

“The feedback the community partners gave centred around things they loved and things that the teams could extend on,” Ms Burrows said. “They tried to challenge their thinking and take it one step further.

“There was also a lot of talk around organisations in Ballarat that would love to hear their ideas or connect with them to support them launching their concepts.”

The unique approach taken by CIC to empower young people to form and share ideas proved to be not only constructive for the community, but also for the participants.

“We had really positive feedback from all of our young people involved,” said Ms Brurrows.

“It’s different to other school projects because there’s a real-world connection to meet people outside of school and given the platform to voice your ideas.”

Visit cicbeyond.com/home/ballaratyounginnovatorsforum to check out the 18 final concepts, make a comment on them or vote on which ones you like