Tim Kenworthy, 2009 Young Social Pioneer, and the team from Youth Tree have won the Innovate! BHP Billiton Award at the WA Youth Awards last week. Youth Tree, founded by Tim Kenworthy, was selected for promoting citizenship by increasing the number of youth volunteers. The WA Youth Awards were established in 1999 to recognise outstanding young Western Australians aged 12 to 25 years.
Youth Tree is a youth-run non-profit organisation based in Perth, which uses creativity and fun to engage young people in volunteering. Its vision is to make youth volunteering mainstream. Youth Tree’s launch event was in January 2009, bringing together 80 young people and 20 different non-profit organisations. The organisation now has two branches: TEDxPerth and Big Help Mob. TEDxPerth, is Youth Tree’s massive, monthly idea-sharing event, which also provides a platform for non-profits to showcase their volunteer opportunities. Big Help Mob, Youth Tree’s hands-on branch, is a rent-a-crowd of diverse young people who provide massive bursts of people-power for local non-profits and communities while having serious fun in the process. Together, these two branches are building a community of aware, inspired and active young people in Perth.
Youth Tree currently has volunteer staff positions open on the TEDxPerth and Big Help Mob teams. Go to www.youthtree.org.au/apply.html to get involved.
