The Youth Lead the Way - Future Youth Festival brought Blacktown’s young people together to generate new ideas to promote cultural harmony.
The event, held at Blacktown PCYC, saw 7 youth organisations vying for $20,000 in NSW Government funding for the most creative project proposal to build bridges between young people from different cultural backgrounds.
The seven competing groups included:
- SydWest Multicultural Services
- Blacktown Youth Services Association (BYSA)
- Mount Druitt Ethnic Communities Agency (MECA)
- Riverstone Neighbourhood Centre
- Mount Druitt Street University (Ted Noffs Foundation)
- Com4Unity
- Blacktown Youth Team and PCYC Blacktown
The event featured performances from hip-hop group Soul Benefits and X Factor contestant Stephanie Lambell, with appearances from Western Sydney Wanderers players. It was hosted by popular youth figures Kween G and Ran Dee.
Minister for Citizenship and Communities Victor Dominello, who also attended the event, said he was delighted with the positive response from the local community.
“Tonight was an opportunity to bring together people from diverse cultural backgrounds by focusing on things which unite young Australians, including music, dance, sport, and our shared interest in maintaining community harmony”, Mr Dominello said.
“We saw some great proposals, including a project to boost young people’s engagement with NSW Police, a documentary film project, a social media campaign, a road safety campaign and a rap music partnership”.