Making Waves Fellowship
FYA is launching a new fellowship to support young activists to sharpen their skills, find their people, and turn passion into power.
What is the fellowship?
The Fellowship combines our previous training programs Step Up! and Media for Advocacy, and adds in a significant new component focused on wellbeing and sustainable activism. It is also a great opportunity to meet other young activists and organisers and build your support networks.
We intend to adapt the content and format based on the needs of the participants and the campaigns they are working on, so that participants can apply what’s being presented directly to their work for justice.
Apply now
The program is for 18-30 year olds (18-35 for First Nations people) living in so-called Australia who are volunteering on a campaign and/or a community organising or community building project. There are up to 20 spots in the program.
Applications close Monday 23 March and successful applicants will be contacted by Friday 27 March.
FAQs
The program will run for six months, from May to November 2026. There will be an in-person component at Commonground, near Naarm / Melbourne on the weekend of 23-24 May, and then a series of online sessions (to be scheduled).
We intend this to be a flexible program that will adapt to the needs of the participants, so they get what they need to increase their capacity and the capacity of their collective to build power and fight injustice.
Main areas the Fellowship will cover include:
- Campaign strategy and tactics
- Community organising and building (volunteer recruitment and retention, building collective leadership)
- Campaign case studies, particularly focused on First Nations examples
- The importance and implementation of solidarity with First Nations people
- Creating psychologically safe and inclusive spaces
- Preventing, recognising and managing burnout
- Media engagement tools e.g. media releases, pitching
- Storytelling and messaging
- Understanding the media landscape and power dynamics
- Giving media interviews
- Role and history of youth movements
- Analysing and understanding the colonial and capitalist systems we live in
- Building new systems, e.g. mutual aid
- Focus on relationship building and strengthening the broad-based youth movement
We aim to make this program as accessible as possible. If you are someone with accessibility needs, would like a support person or has young children, we can work with you to ensure your needs are met for full participation. There will be a diversity of program participants across ethnic and cultural background, gender, sexuality and geography.
There is no cost to participants. FYA will provide meals and a travel allowance to all participants including regional applicants for the in-person component.
For more information get in contact with the team at [email protected]
Expression of interest form
We ask for some personal details in this form. These are collected for the purpose of contacting you about your application. After the application process, this information will be de-identified and securely stored. When we no longer need your information, we will securely destroy it.