YACtivate! 2025

YACtivate is back! We are so excited to open ticket bookings for the return of YACtivate!

What is YACtivate?

For many years YACtivate! was an annual event that brought young people together from Youth Advisory Councils/Groups across the State to build connections and learn new skills. It was initiated by the Town of Mosman Park Youth Advisory Council and then run as a collaborative effort between a few local governments over a number of years. The last one held was in 2019.

With even more Youth Advisory Groups (YAGs) across the State than ever before, YACWA decided as the State Peak who does a lot of work with Youth Advisory Groups, we would bring this event back! We are hosting it the day after the State’s annual youth sector conference Fairground to maximise the chance of young people and sector workers alike to be able to attend both!

Event details

When: YACtivate is a one-day event that will be held on Saturday 14th June from 9.30am to 4.30pm.

Where: YACtivate will be held at the Cockburn Youth Centre, 25 Wentworth Parade in Success. For regional people who are attending Fairground, this is about 15km from the conference venue; and we will provide instructions on how to get there

Cost: Ticket price is $50 (plus booking fee) for young people connected with a metropolitan based YAG or who are part of a State-wide YAG but live in the metropolitan area. The ticket is free for young people who are part of a regionally based YAG or who are part of a State-wide YAG but live in a regional area. The ticket should be paid for by the organisation that supports the Youth Advisory Group, not young people themselves.

Access: The Cockburn Youth Centre is an accessible venue with gender neutral toilets. We will work with attendees to accommodate specific access and inclusion needs.

Who can attend?

Any young person aged 12 to 25 in Western Australia who is currently part of a Youth Advisory Group is eligible to attend.

There are 80 youth tickets available. We anticipate that the event will be popular, as such we are limiting tickets to three per YAG to start with. We have set aside 30 for regional young people and 50 for metropolitan young people.

If after the first round of ticket booking (14th March to 30th April), if there are tickets remaining; we will open up the ticket allocation to allow additional young people from YAGs who have filled their allocation.

Young people under 18 should have a staff member from their YAG attend with them. There will be activities for YAG staff on the day as well. If you this is not possible; please contact us before booking a ticket so that we can assess the situation and determine if we are able to accommodate.

What will YACtivate be like?

The program for the day is still in development; however, based on survey feedback gathered last year it will be structured around four key elements:

Learn: The day will include short workshops on topics such as Advocacy 101 and Designing a Successful Project; as well as inspirational speakers and stalls that will give attendees the opportunity to learn more about youth-led projects around the state.

Share: There is nothing like learning how other young people solved a wicked problem to get inspired. Attendees who have something great or innovative to share will have an opportunity to do so. We will be doing a call out to attendees for dynamic presentations and skill shares.

Connect: We know attendees will value the opportunity to connect with like-minded young people the most. There will be structured meal breaks, get to know you activities, and fun things like a photo booth space and contact swap opportunities to maximise connection.

Action: We want attendees to not only take away new knowledge, skills and connection, but be inspired to put this into action. There will be a take-away digital Power-Up pack as well as a chance to brainstorm what attendees want YACWA and other parties to do after the event to keep the momentum going.

About tickets

If you don’t know all the details about the young people you are buying tickets for, such as dietary requirements or access needs; you can still book the tickets, and we will follow up to confirm closer to the time.

One ticket for a staff member that supports the YAG is free to attend. We will work with you closer to the time around parental consent for under 18s.  If you want more than one ticket for a staff member, this will be $50 to cover the cost of food for the day.

How else can my YAG members get involved in the event?

We will be holding two meetings with six young people (three regional and three metropolitan) to help us plan some elements of the event. The meetings will be held online and young people with be paid $50 (each meeting) via VISA gift card. We will send a form for young people to nominate soon.

As mentioned above, YACtivate will be an opportunity to share some of the amazing things that YAGs are doing. So, if your YAG is doing something SUPER, we want to hear from you. It could be on topics such as:

• How you recruited and kept young people to your YAG
• Running an amazing social media campaign
• How to get people in your organisation to listen and act on your ideas
• Quick wins

Thank you to...

Department of Communities: This is event is supported by the Department of Communities through their Youth Engagement Grants. Without this funding, this event would not be possible!

RAC Ignite program: We are also excited to partner with the RAC Ignite Program to bring this event to so many young people.

City of Cockburn: Thank you also to our local government sponsor the City of Cockburn who is hosting us in their fabulous Youth Centre.