$20 Boss Program

Young Change Agents' social entrepreneurship programs help youth to see problems as opportunities. As a component of their $20 Boss program, the Year 9 cohort took part in a 4 part workshop at Beaumaris Secondary College from February 14 to March 16. Students worked in teams of 3-5 in this "hackathon style" workshop series to identify problems within their communities, link these problems to UN Sustainable Development Goals then ideate, validate, and pitch a solution. Students pitched their social enterprise ideas in the form of a skit on March 16 in an 'Elevator Pitch Play' exercise. 

The teams will continue working on their social enterprises before heading to market to sell their product or service later in the year. 

Community Problems Identified

Students discussed what community meant to them and worked to identify problems and create a vision for the future they want to create. Some community problems identified by youth included:

• Access to sanitary products
• Stress and anxiety among young people
• Lack of healthy foods available
• Deforestation and climate change
• Mental health
• Outdated sports facilities

Skills Developed

Throughout the program youth teams worked their way through a number of activities, developing skills in multiple core competencies whilst preparing for the final pitch. Identifying a problem, creating a social enterprise solution and developing the idea which solves a problem they care about and pitching for feedback.

• Critical thinking 
• Creativity 
• Collaboration
• Communication
• Pitching
• Time management 
• Problem solving
• Storytelling
• Decision making 

Mr Chris Ardi

Teacher