Thrive Cast project wins Ballarat Youth Awards
Ballarat’s best and brightest young people were celebrated at the City of Ballarat Youth Awards on Friday night with young people from the CMY Ballarat team taking out the ‘Group Project’ and ‘Youth Volunteer Award’.
Since 2005, the City of Ballarat has been delivering the annual Youth Awards to recognise the outstanding contributions that young people make to the Ballarat community. The annual youth-led initiative pays tribute to young people making valuable contributions in a range of sectors, including sport, equity, diversity and inclusion, and community service. This year, a total of 105 young people were nominated across 10 categories for their individual contributions to the Ballarat community.
Group Project Award – Thrive Cast
Taking out the ‘Group Project Award’ was Thrive Cast, CMY Ballarat’s mental health podcast by young people for young people.
“It felt like winning the Grammys!”
Matt, Thrive Cast participant
“Receiving the 2024 youth award for the Group Project Award was both an incredible honour and privilege. Working with everyone who has been part of this project has been inspiring, knowing that everyone wants to make a difference in the Ballarat community. Being recognised for this by the city of Ballarat was a surreal moment.”
Taylah, Thrive Cast participant
Thrive Cast is a collaboration between CMY’s Youth Advisory Group and headspace Youth Reference Group. The podcast explores themes of intersectionality and addressing barriers between culture and mental health. Topics covered so far include mental health, culture, families, relationships, gendered violence and education. Learn more about Thrive Cast or listen to latest episodes on Spotify.
Youth Volunteer Award – Thu
One of CMY Ballarat’s most dedicated young people Thu, was the recipient of the ‘Youth Volunteer Award’. Born in Vietnam, Thu came to Australia when she was just 10 years old. She moved to the tiny rural town of Nhill, an isolated farming community with very little cultural diversity at the time. Eventually relocating to Ballarat, Thu found it to be a much more diverse town in comparison, with more opportunities. However, she still felt that she stood out, and struggled to learn to adapt all by herself.
“I struggled a lot when I first moved to Ballarat. When I first moved to Australia, I did not know English at all. And going from living in such a small town (Nhill) to a bigger town, I obviously had to adapt to the language and much more people.”
Thu has emerged as a leader in three volunteer programs. Thu is a founding member of Tiaal Mi Goa, a youth mental health project focusing on intercultural sharing, community wellbeing and family. Thu also plays a key role in the gender equity-focused Speak Up program, is a leader in CMY’s Ballarat Youth Advisory Group, and has helped create Thrive Cast podcast. Thu does all this while managing Year 12 studies and part-time work.
Thu has overcome so much, dedicated a lot of time, and committed an incredible amount of leadership, teamwork and resilience towards improving the lives of young people in Ballarat, and deserves to be recognised for her courage and achievements. Thu battled with mental health issues during high school, as many young people do. She decided to start giving back to the community as a way of ‘getting out of self’, as well as to develop confidence, and to help other youth know they are not alone. Read more about Thu’s journey.
Congratulations to all of the inspiring young people recognised at the Ballarat Youth Awards!
Learn more about CMY’s work in the Regional Presence Project in Ballarat.
