Bega social enterprise Grow the Future is growing young people’s capacity and confidence by taking them outside of four walls. Photo: Supplied.
Grow the Future’s alternative pathway to employment and training is striking a chord with Bega Valley youth who are disengaged from school, study, or work.
On the surface Grow the Future is growing food for the community and regenerating land, but what it is really doing is growing young people’s confidence, capacity, and connection.
The social enterprise takes young people outside of four walls and gives them hands-on, activities-based project work. They learn essential workplace skills in a supportive outdoor environment and can take accredited courses in horticulture, ecosystem management and business skills.
Within two years of opening the gates of its two-acre farm on the edge of Bega, Grow the Future has engaged with 226 young people, trained 41 and employed 40.
At any one time it employs up to 12 young people regenerating land and working on the farm which produces vegetables, herbs and eggs that are sold locally. To date it has grown and sold 9.1 million tonnes of produce.
It works with all young people aged between 12 and 24, and particularly those young people who are disengaged from school and school leavers who are struggling to find a pathway into adulthood and employment.
Grow the Future offers young people accredited courses in horticulture, ecosystem management and business skills. Photo: Supplied.
Brogo born and bred Cal Champagne started Grow the Future after setting up a social enterprise in Wollongong in 2013 and running it for eight years. Using a farm as a vehicle for engagement, it provided vocational pathways and employment transition to refugees and young people.
He returned to the Bega Valley during the COVID pandemic and wanted to work more closely with young people.
He took on a project to evaluate Bega Valley Shire Council’s youth program and assess what was working and what was not.
Mr Champagne said while there were many services that provided clinical support for people facing barriers to transitioning to adulthood, in his experience project-based and activity-based methods were most effective at engaging that group of people. He found these were lacking in the Bega Valley.
Mr Champagne got seed funding from the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation and partnered with SCPA-South East Producers to get a large grant from what was the Department of Regional NSW.
Grow the Future became an independent not-for-profit registered charity in November 2024. After operating through SCPA-South East Producers for the past two years, Grow the Future began running in its own name independently in mid-April.
It runs two main programs, with the Hands-on program aimed at 12- to 17-year-olds who are disengaged from school. It integrates outdoor learning with project-based work experience to provide an environment where young people can flourish.
Its 16-week vocational course is for 15- to 24-year-olds who face barriers to employment and education. It combines accredited units from horticulture, business, and ecosystem management and is intended to provide a foot in the door into those sectors.
Grow the Future recently received more than $500,000 in funding. Photo: Supplied.
Mr Champagne said it was also a soft entry into vocational training and workplace skills. Kiama Community College oversees the vocational course so that it is accredited.
Having grown up in the Bega Valley, Mr Champagne knows the challenges young people face in regional areas, especially those disengaged from school, work, or study, or facing other barriers to transitioning into the adult world.
“There is a growing sense among some young people that they lack agency to improve their own situation, let alone have an impact on the broader world,” Mr Champagne said. “Disempowerment and a lack of opportunity to improve themselves are the issues we are grappling with in our community.”
Grow the Future recently received $400,000 over two years from the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation so it can evolve from being grant-reliant to a 50 per cent self-funded social enterprise.
Mr Champagne also successfully pitched at a Funding Network event for $134,000 to help cover gaps over the next two years.
Other funding recently secured is $9500 from the Foundation for Regional and Rural Renewal for youth employment farm production projects and $10,000 from Bendigo Bank Foundation to support school training programs.
“The goal is not teaching or trying to create the next generation of organic growers and regenerative farmers,” Mr Champagne said. “It is growing their horizons and growing themselves.
“We are using it is as a vehicle to get their foot in the door, for something that is meaningful, and to give them some workplace culture and employment skills that are useful to everyone.”
