Co-designing plan for Victoria
We partnered with the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) to meaningfully embed young people’s insights and ideas into the department’s Plan for Victoria.
Opportunity
The Victorian Government’s Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) sought to create a bold, forward-thinking Plan for Victoria, a guide for Victoria's growth over the next 30 years. Recognising the critical importance of young people in shaping the future, DTP partnered with YLab to co-design an engagement strategy, ensuring the voices of young Victorians were at the heart of this process. The goal? To amplify young voices in the creation of policies and urban plans that reflect their diverse visions.
Challenges
Engaging underrepresented communities
DTP needed to engage young people from diverse geographic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds, including those in regional and rural areas who typically don’t have access to such planning discussions.
Creating meaningful participation
Ensuring that young people were not just heard but genuinely involved in shaping decisions was crucial. This required innovative methods to foster deep and productive engagement that went beyond tokenistic consultations.
Turning insights into impact
The challenge was to transform young people's ideas into concrete actions that could be integrated into long-term state planning while ensuring their visions were authentically reflected in the outcomes.
Approach
Recruitment and training
We onboarded nine young people from metropolitan, regional, and rural areas across Victoria to act as Youth Ambassadors. These young people were employed, trained, and coached to lead the engagement activities in their own communities.
Co-design and coaching
Throughout the project, the Youth Ambassadors participated in workshops and received one-on-one coaching sessions. They co-designed a series of events tailored to their local communities, using methods such as scrapbooking, vision boarding, and interactive art installations. These activities allowed participants to creatively express their aspirations for the future of Victoria.
Event delivery
Together with YLab, the Youth Ambassadors led nine community engagement events across the state. These ranged from a basketball tournament in Wyndham, to a creative booklet workshop in Portland, each designed to foster dialogue and gather rich, actionable insights.
“The co-design workshops were a joy and beautifully facilitated. The level of enthusiasm was great, we loved how easily they were all brought into a complex project.
It was really impressive.”
How we engaged young people
Our young people-centred approach enabled us to meaningfully involve over 200 young people from diverse backgrounds. Through activities like speed-friending in North Melbourne and creative origami workshops in Dandenong, we provided spaces for young people to voice their visions. Youth Ambassadors designed and facilitated these events, ensuring the engagements were deeply rooted in their communities' needs. They also played a key role in synthesising the insights gathered, ensuring that young voices shaped the project's outcomes.
“I loved the whole experience, however, when everything and everyone came together, it was like a magical moment. What went well was the collaboration, it made everything so easy.”
Project outcomes
By centering young people in the planning process, we successfully embedded their visions into the Plan for Victoria. This resulted in actionable insights on issues ranging from affordable housing and mental health to sustainability and community connection.
As a direct result of the project:
Victoria's future urban planning will reflect young people’s perspectives: the insights gathered from young people directly informed key urban planning decisions, ensuring that the next 30 years of Victoria's growth are shaped by those who will live through it.
Actionable policy recommendations: the insights uncovered through young people-led co-design informed concrete policy recommendations on critical issues such as affordable housing, sustainability, and mental health, which will guide the state's planning.
Community empowerment: young people involved in the project reported a strong sense of pride and ownership over their contributions. Many expressed a desire to stay engaged and continue influencing their local communities.
Lasting impact on youth employment and leadership: through their roles as Youth Ambassadors, young people gained hands-on experience in leadership, community engagement, and policy influence, preparing them for future roles in shaping their communities.
Double impact
Not only did we achieve key project goals, we created employment and training opportunities for young people. Over the course of the project:
9 young people were employed as Youth Ambassadors.
108 hours of one-on-one coaching were provided.
Over 200 young people across the state were engaged in events.
As one Youth Ambassador reflected:
“I learnt that young people have many ideas, but don’t often have the platform or safe spaces to share them. I learnt that we all want similar things, and together have such creative ideas and visions. I felt a deep sense of pride and connection with this work, and it really reaffirmed that I want my career to build a career in this space. I learnt so many new skills, including facilitation, public speaking, and general logistics and planning.”
Want to learn more about this project or get access to the final report?
Email Project Manager Lien To.
