Youthworx

Youthworx assists homeless or ‘at-risk’ young people to become media trainees and producers in collaboration with SYN FM – a youth-run media organisation and community radio station. The project evolved out of a partnership between the Salvation Army, SYN-FM and CCI.

Youthworx investigates a new approach to social enterprise, which unites third-sector welfare services with the self-determining, collaborative sphere of community media. CCI researchers are engaged in a longitudinal study of Youthworx, monitoring the challenges encountered by participants as they become media creators and decision-makers. Our research is multi-disciplinary, connecting social, education and media research in order to understand interconnections between creative industries and social development.

The project entails establishing a studio-based training and mentoring system for at-risk youth, run by Youth Development Australia in collaboration with the Salvation Army. This system will give qualifying young people access to SYN-FM induction and training programs. Agreements, funding and infrastructure have been in place since mid-2007; construction of the studio and appointment of key personnel will be complete by March 2008, at which point the first cohort of young people will enter the Youthworx program.

The research has therefore been restructured into two phases of work over the five years of the project, each addressed to youth-run community media, their social and vocational outcomes and their capacity for innovation.