The National Aspiring Leaders Summit is a one of Australia's peak leadership events. It brings together young people from across Australia to participate in a seven day program that provides them with the necessary skills and experiences to return to their community and make a difference. The young people walk away from the program with a plan to complete a Community Action Project.

The National Aspiring Leaders Program successfully engaged ten not-for-profit and community organisations across Australia to support young people in establishing social enterprises or projects that make a difference. Twenty-eight communities from five states and two territories were represented in the 2008 program. These communities represent varying degrees of disadvantage including geographic isolation, high unemployment and a lack of educational and health services provided for young people. Each project or enterprise focuses important needs in those communities. Some young people chose to focus on local projects, while others chose to collaborate across borders. One example was in a group of four young people representing four states to tackle the issue of abuse in their communities.

The National Aspiring Leaders program is innovative in the way it works with other not-for-profits. Outward Bound recognises that by working with other organisations they are able to provide greater support for the young people engaged in its programs. Examples of this include:

• The Education Foundation of Australia has provided critical support for the delegate through Josh Levy and the ruMAD? program.
• The Country Education Foundation of Australia supported fifteen young people from disadvantaged rural communities to participate in this program.
• The Smith Family supported three young people engaged in their "Learning for Life" program to participate.

Outward Bound hopes that through this initiative it is able to make a real difference not only in the lives of the young people who participate, but also in the capacity of these organisations to fulfil their missions. Melbourne-based community organisation YEAH (Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS) and the Oak Tree Foundation have been able to benefit from this program by having young people they support return to their organisation to coordinate and deliver on capacity building projects.

The National Aspiring Leaders Program is at its core preventative. It works in the space of developing the necessary skills, attitudes and behaviours in young people that will allow them to effectively lead projects that make a difference in their community. The program doesn't work directly at the social problems the young people identify. It works at building a leadership capacity that can address these and other problems into the future. Research on Outward Bound programs has proven that the impact of these programs on individuals last a lifetime.

On a fundamental level, Outward Bound seeks to address six declines in modern society: fitness; memory and imagination; skill and care; initiative and enterprise, self-discipline and compassion. These qualities are all integral parts of this and other Outward Bound programs. Outward Bound believes that by addressing these social declines and providing young people with the resilience, confidence and self-awareness, it is able to make a significant long-term difference in the world.

This program is helping open up new opportunities for collaboration across the social sector. As previously mentioned over ten organisations were engaged in this program. For many of the young people this was their first opportunity to engage with and work alongside other young people from other states. The shifts in perspective that occurred for the young people were monumental. This collaboration has continued beyond the program and with limited support from Outward Bound. Technology has been a key factor in bringing the young people together and allowing them to collaborate.

The Westpac Foundation proudly supports the National Aspiring Leaders program.

Click here to check out our DVD of the 2008 Summit. 

Participants at the National Aspiring Leaders Summit 2008