Empowering the Next Generation: Geelong Social Innovators Program.

Over two days in both Terms 1 and 2, over 100 students from various schools around Geelong gathered with a shared purpose – tackling environmental and societal challenges through innovative thinking.

The event kicked off with students choosing topics that resonated deeply with them, ranging from environmental conservation to social connectivity. Enthusiasm spread as teams formed and ideas were born. By the end of the first day, prototypes of their very own crazy good ideas were taking shape.

Day two saw these young innovators refine their ideas into actionable experiments, preparing to pitch their projects and potential impacts to a panel of community partners.

The projects presented were as diverse as they were innovative, with student ideas such as ‘iPlanet’ proposing a virtual reality experience to enhance younger people’s understanding of environmental impact, while ‘Young, Old and Connected’ aimed to bridge generational gaps through meaningful interactions. One student initiative, ‘Garbo Go’, introduced an incentive-based app to motivate community rubbish collection, highlighting the students’ ability to merge technology with civic engagement.

The feedback from community partners was overwhelmingly positive, many of whom committed to supporting these initiatives further and invited students to the next stages of development.

Students similarly felt a profound connection to the program, saying:

“The CIC program allowed me to work on issues that I really care about with people I wouldn’t normally work with. The step-by-step guide and CIC experts really helped us a lot. It was surprising how many ideas people can come up with in such a short amount of time!”

– Hamish, St Joseph’s College, Geelong.

“The Social Innovators program really takes young people out of their comfort zone to think about their long-term future. The students showed great enthusiasm, thought and passion in their ideas and pitch delivery.”

– Keith, Geelong Angels.

In fostering these dynamic and supportive spaces, we are reminded of the potential that lies within our younger generations and the importance of nurturing them. As we look to the future, ID_Land remains committed to building communities of connection and supporting the growing minds of tomorrow.

Our team at ID_Land is proud to be supporting the Crazy Ideas College, and we can’t wait to see what ideas come next from their Crazy Ideas!