Today’s systems are failing young people

We provide disadvantaged young people with the skills, resources and employment opportunities to actively create a future filled with opportunity and hope.

Our services

WHAT WE OFFER

We’re a registered charity that provides employment, work experience and training opportunities to disadvantaged young people that build capabilities and pathways to meaningful participation in society.

We facilitate their involvement in the design of services and systems that impact their employment, health and education, ensuring their diverse lived experiences inform solutions that reduce ongoing harm.

Through this work, YLab delivers direct benevolent relief to disadvantaged young people while contributing to long-term improvements in the systems that shape their wellbeing and futures.

See our work

  • We have an engaged community of disadvantaged young people who bring a diverse range of experiences, cultures, identities and perspectives to our work. We are experts in recruiting specific cohorts of young people and meaningfully engaging them in project work.

  • We bring together disadvantaged young people with diverse lived experiences, key stakeholders and decision-makers to co-design and co-create solutions to complex challenges.

  • We offer paid creative opportunities powered by disadvantaged young creatives, supporting their employment, skill development and pathways into meaningful work.

  • We support disadvantaged young people to lead and contribute to research and insights that influence policies, services and systems affecting their wellbeing and future opportunities.

  • We design and facilitate workshops, forums and events that centre disadvantaged young people’s voices and expertise. From interactive co-design sessions to large-scale summits, our approach ensures participants are actively engaged to contribute to meaningful solutions.

  • With knowledge systems as old as time, our First Nations practice emboldens young Mob to be agents for change in creating new self-determined solutions and embed First Nations thinking across our own and clients’ work.

  • We deliver practical tools, trainings, frameworks, workshops and learning programs to help organisations better engage and support disadvantaged young people.

  • We help organisations design people-centred strategies, services, and programs. Our approach centres co-design principles and practical frameworks to ensure outcomes are informed by disadvantaged young people and the teams that support them.

Who we benefit

We prioritise providing skills, resources and employment opportunities to young people aged 15-26 experiencing social, economic and structural disadvantage, including those who identify as:

  • Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander

  • Refugees and/or migrants

  • Black, brown and/or People of colour

  • People living with disability

  • People from low-income households

  • People with experience of mental illness

  • People with experience of the justice system

  • LGBTQI+ 

  • Transgender, gender diverse and/or non-binary

  • Neurodivergent

HOW WE DO IT

Our work centres co-design principles that bring professional and lived experiences together, as well as our deep expertise working with disadvantaged young people.

We work with clients to identify the right approach to meet their challenges, and generate the greatest impact for disadvantaged young people throughout the process.

Admiring the problem

We take the time to truly understand the challenge or opportunity and get deep on our assumptions, biases, knowledge and questions.

Building solutions

We rigorously come up with ideas to address the problem and decide what solutions to build, test and iterate.

Scaling for impact

We take what we've developed back through our co-design model to amplify its impact in target communities.

Our theory of change

if we…

  • Invest in disadvantaged young people experiencing social, economic and structural disadvantage as active participants within system change efforts, and

  • Embed their lived experience at the centre of how systems are designed, tested and governed.

By…

  • Providing paid employment, mentorship, and skill-development in a safe and supportive work environment,

  • Building capability, confidence and networks  that enable active engagement in system change work,

  • Working in partnership with organisations, institutions and communities to reimagine systems, and

  • Synthesising insights from projects to inform broader system reform.

This will lead to…

  • New models and practices that reduce exclusion and prevent harm,

  • A growing cohort of young leaders equipped to influence systems contributing to their social, economic and structural disadvantage, and

  • Organisations and decision-makers better able to respond to disadvantaged young people’s needs.

And result in…

  • Improved long-term outcomes for disadvantaged young people, 

  • Systems that are more equitable, inclusive and responsive, and

  • Power that is more equitably shared across generations.

Our focus

SYSTEMS OF IMPACT

We work across complex systems that disproportionately affect disadvantaged young people.

  • First Nations

    We have a strong focus on intersectional justice and First Nations self-determination and know that young people facing multiple and compounding experiences of injustice hold many of the insights and answers on how our systems and services can improve.

    See our First Nations work

  • Health

    Disadvantaged young people require a healthcare system that values their agency and acknowledges their expertise about their own lives and bodies. Current services are severely lacking, hard to access and often irrelevant to their needs.

    See our health work

  • Education

    The current education system fails to adequately prepare disadvantaged young people for their futures, leaving them disengaged and lacking agency. Its ‘one size fits all’ approach neglects diverse learners and thinkers, hindering their engagement and success.

    See our education work

  • Employment

    Disadvantaged young people in Australia face double the unemployment rate of the general population. Current employment systems strip them of dignity, security and agency. Young people seek workplaces that prioritise diversity, wellbeing and learning opportunities.

    See our employment work

“The team at YLab are highly empathetic, engaged and intelligent. They were a joy to work with.”

Jacqui Horwood, Senior Program Manager, State Library Victoria