Category

The Feed

Image by Alexander Suhorucov

Blog 001 – The Beginning Of OnRamp, A Women’s Upskilling Programme, Created By Vibewire

By | OnRamp, The Feed

When I first joined Vibewire I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what I was going to be doing for OnRamp. This program was completely new and the board entrusted me to bring their idea to life. All I knew was that the goal was to close the wage gap. Future jobs require 70% more enterprise skills aka people skills than it used to, and there were research proven skill sets that would boost people’s capabilities. We knew that women are less likely to ask for the job or ask for the pay rise. I’ve seen this in myself and the women around me as well.

Armed with this knowledge, we decided to build a program that targeted the issues on both ends. Not only do we build their confidence, but also their communication, leadership and presentation skills. Our board member Mike Biggs offered his knowledge of teaching in order to build a curriculum that we could work with. To make sure our curriculum was solid, we reached out to a few of Mike’s and Vibewire’s contacts, women who also had teaching experience and understood the issues we were tackling, to get their feedback.

Shoutout to Susan Wolfe, Tanya Wong and Melanie Kendell for your support on building the curriculum to elevate women’s careers! They shared great ideas that we wouldn’t have considered, helped with the structure and flow of the program to ensure it made sense. Perfect. Now all we needed were speakers…. (To be continued)

Share your vision for the federal election – join us for electionWIRE 2019

By | electionWIRE, The Feed

When the postal survey on legalising same-sex marriage was announced, an extra 90,000 Australians registered to vote. And the upcoming 2019 election has seen the highest ever enrolment rate ever – 96.8%.

With 1.69 million of the 16.4 million Australians now registered, issues affecting young people should be high on the agenda. After all, we represent just over 10% of voters.

And yet, when we look at the policies, the way they are being pitched, and the focus of spending and programs – there’s little focus on the needs and aspirations of young people. Or is there?

What would YOU like to see in the big picture of your future?

Join us for #electionWIRE on Twitter

Rather than just hearing what the political parties want to tell us, we want to hear your perspectives:

  • What’s important for you in the election?
  • What are your frustrations?
  • What do you want to see change?

Hosted by comedian, film-maker and rabble-rouser, Dan Ilic, you can join us on Twitter, following the hashtag #electionWIRE:

Where: Twitter
When: 6pm AEST
Who to follow: @Vibewire @DanIlic

We are creating a list of topics – but we’d love to hear from you. We’ve got:

  • Climate change
  • Housing affordability
  • New Start
  • Homelessness
  • Mental health

But if you have a topic you’d like to discuss, leave a comment below. Or just turn up on Thursday night and share your perspectives on #electionWIRE.

Youth Homelessness is Getting Worse, Not Better

By | Hack4Homelessness, Hackathing, The Feed

Despite the millions that have been invested in tackling homelessness, challenges remain. In fact, there seems to be more ways to be homeless than every before:

  • We live in overcrowded housing, sharing rooms with extended families and even strangers
  • We avoid the dangers of rough sleeping by couchsurfing and staying with friends a few nights at a time
  • We huddle in boarding houses and supported accommodation when we can find a place
  • We sleep rough.

Imagining a different future for young people

Imagine for a moment what it is like to do this. Think of the stress and anxiety that comes with not having a safe place to rest at the end of the day.

And then imagine that you are a young person.

The simple fact is that youth homelessness is rising. The CHP fact sheet reveals that youth homelessness has increased 26% from 2006-2016. And more recent figures confirm this worrying trend.

The thing about homelessness is that it often combines other challenges. For example, if you are homeless, it’s likely that you have experienced family and domestic violence, have (or will develop) mental health issues and experience financial exclusion and poverty. These create the conditions for a difficult downwards spiral that well-supported adults struggle to deal with. A young person may never find their way to a more stable future.

Think about the young people in your life. Think about the young people you pass in the street. Help us imagine a different future for them.

What you can do

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Vibewire was established with the belief that young people should create, not inherit the future. And our Hacks4Impact are designed to put power, choice and decision making into the hands (and minds) of young people. In April 2019, we are calling on the hackers, hipsters, hustlers and humanitarians to help us develop new solutions to homelessness. We know that what we have on offer are not working – and we need to start somewhere. That somewhere is the MnM Institute on 5-7 April. Join us we make a difference.

Laura Rojas is appointed as Vibewire’s new Executive Director

By | The Feed

Announcement: Vibewire’s commitment to young women in leadership, Laura Rojas is appointed as Vibewire’s new Executive Director.

Youth-led and youth run not-for-profit, Vibewire has announced, the next-gen leader, Laura Rojas as Executive Director on International Women’s Day.

As an organization, Vibewire acts as platform to support and advocate young people to think differently. Vibewire backs young people as the change makers of tomorrow through skills workshops, open-forum talks, social impact hackathons, and a long standing creative and tech coworking space for under 30s.

With Laura’s background in technology and business, and a keen interest and understanding of the startup ecosystem in Sydney, she is well placed to build on Vibewire’s almost 20 year history as a youth-oriented social and creative innovator.

Laura explains, “I’ve known about Vibewire for a while and have seen it shift and change into a community that is adamant on making a difference to young people. It provides a sandbox approach that encourages play and a safe way to try new ways of doing things. I feel that spaces like Vibewire are imperative to the development of tomorrow’s world.”

Hitting the ground running, Laura and the board are busy in planning mode to deliver another rich year of social and creative impact innovation. Vibewire’s second social impact hackathon of the year will be held in May, 2018 – with a focus on “financial inclusion”.

“It feels apt that on International Women’s Day Vibewire appoints a young woman in a leadership role – one who will help create a new future for women and young people across New South Wales. We look forward to working with and supporting Laura and the team in the years ahead”, says Vibewire President, Gavin Heaton.

 

About Vibewire

At Vibewire, we’re not your average co-working space, incubator or accelerator.

We are a skills gym that makes young people ‘enterprise’ fit. Whether you’re an artist, freelancer, working in a startup or a corporate – you’ve noticed the world is changing rapidly around us.

We’re backing young people as the future makers driving this change. We know to get things right, you usually need to get it wrong first. In the results driven world of business and study, you’re often marked against your abilities. There’s not always a space and community where you can experiment and learn, fail safe and push boundaries.

That’s what we’re all about – exercising your brain through an intensive program with real project briefs, expert coaches and our inspiring members. We do through through 4 workout sessions – Soapbox Club, Dollar Dollar Bill, Hack-A-Thing and Start Up Sundays – as a part of our Skills Gym.

#Hack4DV Interview with Start Some Good

By | Hack4DV, Hackathing, Social Impact, The Feed

We are now into day 2 of our social impact hackathon targeting Family and Domestic Violence #Hack4DV [8-10 Dec 2017]

In the lead up to #Hack4DV we caught up with the kind folks at StartSomeGood.com for an interview around our inspiration and motivations behind the project.

Check some of the answers below [full interview here]: 

Where did you get the original inspiration for your project?

#Hack4DV is our second social impact Hackathon, following on from our successful first offering #Hack4homelessness in early this year in September.

Vibewire President, Gavin Heaton, has extensive experience in the Hackathon circuit. Hackathons are a great way of making significant change in a very short period of time! Many different corporates and community organisations can come together to share their knowledge and data for a common purpose.

What was the hardest aspect of starting a project?

The hardest aspect of starting a project like this is getting the word out! Attracting as many participants as possible and enough funding to make the event a reality.

What kind of support do you think that changemakers in your community need?

Mentorship and financial support e.g. grants, co-working space etc. It takes a lot of work to get ideas off the ground and young people need to be connected to the right people who share their common goal and believe in their project.

What would be your one piece of advice for people who want to make a positive impact?

Be persistent, keep drilling away and try to connect with the right people at Hackathon’s like #Hack4DV as well as through meetup groups like https://www.meetup.com/Young-Entrepreneurs-Sydney/

Stayed tuned for results from the #Hack4DV !!

Meet Jon Westenberg from Speedlancer

By | Hack4DV, Hackathing, Social Impact, The Feed

Introducing Jon Westenberg who will be attending this weekends #Hack4DV (8-10 December) in a mentorship capacity.

Jon is the Chief Marketing Officer at Speedlancer Inc. and has shared his own personal childhood DV experience with us in the video interview below.

Limited spots are left to help us on our mission to solve for Domestic Violence at #Hack4DV but not too late to register and bring your ideas to the Hack starting tonight!

Register here now and let’s confront this challenging issue together!

Register to participate at the Hackathon here

Support our crowdfunding campaign here

See you tonight!

Meet Sybil Williams from Atomic Tangerine

By | Hack4DV, Hackathing, Social Impact, The Feed

Introducing Sybil Williams who will be attending this weekends #Hack4DV (8-10 December) in a mentorship capacity.

Sybil is the Founder of Strategic Marketing Consultancy Atomic Tangerine and has shared her own childhood experience with us in the video interview below.

Limited spots are left to help us on our mission to solve for Domestic Violence at #Hack4DV but not too late to register and bring your ideas to the Hack starting tomorrow night.

Register here now and let’s confront this challenging issue together!

Register to participate at the Hackathon here

Support our crowdfunding campaign here

See you this weekend!