Young Mayors Wollongong

About the Wollongong Youth Forum

The seven member inaugural Youth Forum served their 12 month term in office from January to December 2024. The second Wollongong Youth Forum was made up of twelve members and served from January to December 2025. 

Over the two terms of the Program in Wollongong, the Youth Forum delivered projects, campaigns and events based on priorities identified and developed by the young people of Wollongong. 

The Young Mayors partnership with Wollongong City Council has since been paused to review the impact of the Program in Wollongong.

This page is an archive of the work of the Wollongong Youth Forum.

Priority Agendas

The vision for the 2023 Wollongong Youth Forum included the following principles for consideration when deciding on projects across the LGA: safety, health, equity, education, jobs and the economy, and transport. These principles were developed from amongst the issues affecting young people in Wollongong and surrounding areas.

The second Youth Forum continued the first Forum’s work around safety for young people in Wollongong, equity, health and education. They also added environmental sustainability, community connectivity and access as additional areas of concern for the young people of Wollongong.

Projects and campaigns

Some of the achievements of the two Youth Forums include: 

• Conducting a youth survey to understand what young people care about in Wollongong
• Donating funds to support young people in temporary housing
• Delivering three Living for the Future: Life skills expos at schools in Wollongong
• Funding and planting a Tiny Forest at Keira High School
• Delivering Wollongong City Council Youth Week events, including Youth Awards

How Young Mayors came to Wollongong

Based on existing work with young people led by Wollongong Youth Services, FYA identified Wollongong City Council as a potential pilot site for the Young Mayors program in early 2022. 

Following a period of scoping, the team visited Wollongong in late 2022 to begin developing a plan to launch Young Mayors in the region. Over a number of visits in 2022 and 2023, FYA and Wollongong City Council discussed the model with the Council, young people and community allies, including delivering a co-design session to shape the Young Mayors program with and for young people in Wollongong. A key topic discussed was the name of the program, and it was decided by Wollongong City Council to adopt the term Youth Forum instead of Youth Council.

The first Wollongong Youth Forum was elected in late 2023, voted in by 1476 young people in the LGA.

Stay connected

The Wollongong Youth Forums have ended and the partnership with Wollongong City Council is currently paused.

If you’re a young person in Wollongong interested in civic leadership, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.