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OUR APPROACH

What changes when youth participation is built right.

Hunt For Change isn't an end in itself — it's infrastructure for a shift the sector has wanted for a long time. Here's the change we're working toward, and how we'll know we're getting there.

THE LOGIC

Remove the barrier. Lower the cost. Shift the default.

First, we remove the access barrier. When opportunities are visible, searchable, and matched on lived expertise rather than prior connection, the pool of young people who can participate widens — structurally, not aspirationally.

Second, we lower the cost of doing it well. Organisations want to engage young people but face real resource constraints. By putting shared recruitment infrastructure and routes to training in one place, equitable participation becomes the path of least resistance rather than the path of most effort.

Over time, the combination moves the sector from a default of engaging whoever it can find, to a default of engaging the young people closest to the decision.

THE OUTCOMES

The change, across three horizons.

  1. SHORT TERM · 0–1 YEAR

    Access opens up.

    Young people

    • Greater awareness of opportunities regardless of prior networks or location.
    • Increased confidence to engage in participation and co-design.
    • Stronger connections to mentors, peers, and support networks.

    Organisations and the sector

    • More diverse young people engaging with opportunities.
    • Reduced cost and friction in recruiting young people.
    • Early shifts toward recognising lived experience as a form of expertise.
  2. MEDIUM TERM · 1–3 YEARS

    Participation becomes the norm.

    Young people

    • More marginalised young people in decision-making spaces.
    • Greater employment readiness and sector literacy.
    • Stronger long-term pathways into social impact careers.

    Organisations and the sector

    • More consistent and equitable participation practices across organisations.
    • Increased investment in meaningful engagement over one-off consultation.
    • Broader representation of young people closest to the issues in shaping programs and policy.
  3. LONG TERM · 3–5+ YEARS

    The sector changes shape.

    Young people

    • Sustained leadership and progression within the sector.
    • Young people closest to an issue consistently making decisions about how it's addressed.
    • Greater long-term wellbeing, confidence, and civic participation.

    Organisations and the sector

    • Equitable youth participation embedded as standard practice.
    • Lived expertise recognised and remunerated as professional expertise.
    • Youth participation understood as civic infrastructure, not an optional extra.

A sector where access is shaped by equity, not existing privilege.