Happow

Another year done and dusted. We finished off the school year working with 3 wonderful cohorts – tween girls preparing for year 7 through Flourish Programs. Young people aged between 18-28 taking part in Rotary International’s Victorian RYLA program (our 4th year contributing to the Rotary Youth Leadership Award!). And lastly giving an address to students in years 7-12, all of whom were being awarded for excellence at Loyola College during 2025 (fun fact: Our Co-Founder Gianna Lucas went to that school).

Thanks to all our partners and supporters this year. Wishing everybody a wonderful festive season and a fantastic start to 2026 🎄☀️⚡️

Happy Friday! As we reflect on the impact of Amp It Up in Gippsland and plan what’s next, we wanted to share how our first one made the news 📢

Huge thanks to everyone involved! 🫶

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Check out this awesome video students in years 8-11 at Nagle College Bairnsdale created recapping our Amp It Up event. We're so stoked to see the big impact our event made. Love all their takeaways and insights. We're also proud to see that they'll get access to our eLearning life skills platform post event too! ⚡️

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Amp It Up! Our official first ever empowering youth conference took place on Wednesday in East Gippsland and what a day it was. So proud of the whole team, speakers, panelists and crew, and even more proud of the impact we made in the lives of the hundreds of teens inside the Forge Theatre. ⚡️

What a Wednesday! What an event! Amp It Up was our very first @happowau conference and I’m so happy we got to kickstart it in East Gippsland VIC. It was the BEST day, one filled with powerful stories, impactful strategies and life-long learnings. Secondary school students from Nagle College, Bairnsdale Secondary College, TAFE Gippsland and Lakes Entrance Secondary College gathered at the Forge Theatre in Bairnsdale to hear incredible keynotes from @matt.runnalls, @c___oco and @ericagyeman_. They also heard the very real trials and triumphs from amazing locals forging their own paths – Jaime Savory, Tayla Chippindall and Will Morgan who imparted their wisdom with our amazingly talented career pathways facilitator and MC Dalton Kealey 🎤 Students also received awesome giveaways, fully catered morning tea and lunch, as well as free chartered buses all thanks to the generous support of East Gippsland Shire Council, Workforce Australia Gippsland and the Skills & Job Centre in Bairnsdale. It was a huge community effort powered by our amazing working group who kindly gave up their time to launch Amp It Up ⚡️ We have received the most heartwarming and life-changing feedback from staff and students and our event even made news headlines! 🗞️📱📺 I cannot wait to see what happens next! There is much to be excited about. I’ll continue to share more updates as they come through as we continue to future-proof the lives of young people in high school and beyond. #PowerUpLife 🙌 #happow #ampitup #youthconference #lifeskillseducation #careerpathways #dreambig #careereducation #mentalhealth #mindsettechniques #resilience

Amp It Up, our very first youth conference in East Gippsland is happening in 23 days! ⚡️

This empowering event is now SOLD OUT (woohoo!) with a variety of secondary schools in the region attending. We have 3 amazing keynotes scheduled on the day, as well as an awesome career pathways panel hosted by our event’s MC, Dalton Kealey.

Dalton (he/him) is an amazing youth worker and program facilitator with over 8 years experience supporting youth through mentoring, coaching and leadership programs. Originally from Bendigo, Dalton will bring a stack of energy and heart to Amp It Up because he believes in the power of possibility. He’s passionate about creating spaces where young people can feel seen, heard and inspired to explore their potential.

Known for his vivacious personality and love for nature, Dalton is thrilled to be emceeing Amp It Up – a day designed to ignite ideas, shift mindsets and remind students that the future is theirs to shape 🙌

We’re excited to announce that next month we’re running a conference for secondary schools in East Gippsland! ⚡️

Amp It Up is high-energy event empowering students with key insights and strategies around resilience, mindset techniques, goal setting and career planning.

They’ll hear from local role models in an engaging career panel, plus 3 AMAZING keynote speakers:

💥 Matt Runnalls | CEO of Mindfull Aus
💥 Chloe Chang | Space Mechanical Engineer, Lunar Outpost Oceania
💥 Eric Agyeman | Founder of Legacy Empowerment Group

Amp It Up will be hosted by youth worker and coach Dalton Kealey. Plus, Australia’s first lunar rover, Roo-ver, will be joining Chloe Chang on stage too! 🚀🌒

Huge thanks to Workforce Australia Gippsland and East Gippsland Shire Council for their generous support. Thanks to them, this event is fully catered for staff and students and all bus transport is fully funded too, meaning there’s no cost to schools. Just a fun, purposeful day out for students that’s just about sold-out 🎫

We’re so excited!!

If you’re keen to learn more, feel free to reach out.

Throwback to last week where we presented on camera to staff and students at Castlemaine Secondary College highlighting the benefits of our gamified eLearning life skills platform 💻 📱 Thanks to our partnership with the Bendigo Local Jobs Program, every Year 10 will have access to our resource library, supporting their personal development as they get job ready in 2025. Thrilled to be working with Castlemaine SC’s wonderful team this year! ⚡️

Another year done and dusted. Thank YOU to everybody who had supported us this year from the amazing people behind DEWR’s Local Jobs Program to schools, organisations and service providers, we couldn’t have ran our programs without your unwavering support and belief in us. A HUGE thank you to every single young person who joined our personal development sessions or made the most of our life skills eLearning platform. Working with you and seeing your growth has been the biggest highlight! 🙌

See you all in 2025. For now have the best holiday break🎄🥳

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Us wrapping up our final speaking engagements for 2024. Last Friday was definitely a highlight! One of the many reasons we love working with youth.

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Happy Friyay! Last Thurs we were invited to speak at Bayside, Glen Eira and Kingston LLEN’s Wellbeing Network Meeting at Westall Secondary College in Clayton South. It was so great sharing our insights and impact alongside Be You and Team Sports 4 All - Maroondah! Thanks to all those who attended incl. a wonderful bunch of wellbeing coordinators, thought leaders and passionate staff from the Department of Education. Super excited to be working with BGKLLEN as well as Westall Secondary College in 2025! Exciting times ahead 😄
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Last week we attended the Multicultural Insights Conference by Third Culture Australia. Such a great day! All the speakers were PHENOMENAL. Not only did we hear from inspiring professionals in health, tech, legal and community service, but also a few high school students who are leaders in their own right, proving the future is bright.

At Happow we work with youth in a variety of ways and invite their voices in wherever possible as part of our co-design approach. Our CEO Gianna Lucas is also on the Workforce Australia - Local Jobs - Inner Metro Melbourne, where she advocates for initiatives that engage and empower youth into sustainable and meaningful career pathways. So it was amazing to hear the latest insights whilst meeting like-minded orgs as we shared how we’re each working towards making a difference. But more importantly it was a great opportunity to share how we can innovate and create an even more inclusive future across Australia.

Grateful to have been in attendance alongside a great bunch of people incl. Jacqui Dunbar and Rachel Diana Taylor from Workforce Australia’s Local Jobs Program.

Some highlights incl. a keynote from Kevin Kapeke and Emily Unity. Podcast recording by OKIRU Collective. Hearing from teens involved in the Casey Youth Summit (City of Casey Youth Services) and amazing leaders from Centre for Multicultural Youth (Culture Spring) and Global Shapers Melbourne.

Congrats to Krushnadevsinh (Kano) Ravalji and his network who together are making this world a better place in a big way! 👏🌏

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