“VFFF began conversations with BYSA in early 2019. BYSA’s vibrant energy and commitment to young people being at the centre of conversations about their own wellbeing was clear immediately. With the addition of Sefa, a cross-sector partnership was formed to support BYSA to execute their vision and demonstrate their impact. VFFF is greatly looking forward to working with, learning from and celebrating BYSA in 2022 and beyond.”
Natalie Chiappazzo has been on a 15-year crusade to change how communities support their young people – and the role of funding to facilitate this change.
As the Service Provision Manager at Blacktown Youth Services Association (BYSA), she has seen the life-changing impact of outside-the-box thinking.
BYSA has been a safe place for disadvantaged and at-risk young people aged between 14 and 24 in Blacktown and Sydney’s Western suburbs since 1988. But Natalie realised that the only way to effect lasting, meaningful change was through young people’s input.
“When we allow our young people to come up with solutions to problems in the community; when they’re given an opportunity to lead, huge shifts take place,” Natalie says. “And our programs have continued to change young people’s lives.”
Since then, BYSA has adapted a completely youth-led model, called Youth HQ. The framework helps meet the basic needs of young people by supplying food, clothing and hygiene products, inspires and engages them through creative passions and helps them find their purpose and create a pathway to success.
But as an organisation solely relying on government funding, getting enough resources to run this new model was increasingly difficult.
“Government has a tick-box approach, so we couldn’t spend money on projects with real impact. Large NGOs also started monopolising a lot of the youth funding available and we couldn’t compete.”
Serving over 4,000 young people in only three half-days per week, BYSA needed new funding avenues to be able to support the needs of the community.
After being introduced to BYSA’s innovative and game-changing approach, Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation and Paul Ramsay Foundation were keen to invest in its growth. So they brought in Sefa to help BYSA become investment ready.
They helped develop a bespoke outcome framework that is relevant for the people BYSA serves.
“We don’t fit into a typical outcomes framework. There are some things that are really hard to measure. That's where Sefa’s skillset really came in. They were able to explain things in a different way that investors can understand and still honour the work that has to be done to get to that outcome.”
After extensive research, Sefa also developed a growth strategy and financial forecasting and helped with capacity building for the organisation.
“We are looking to potentially grow to 10 staff members, so need to be able to handle the growth in demand that’s going to come from that.”
Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation and Paul Ramsay Foundation’s investment has given Natalie and the Blacktown youth community renewed hope for the future.
“It’s been frustrating knowing that there’s an answer, but not having the resources to execute it. Now we have the resources, it’s so exciting to see where it takes us.”
But Natalie’s plans reach well beyond BYSA.
“It's more than just the young people in Blacktown. We want this to be in every community everywhere. We've learned so much, and we have so much valuable information – we want to share this with other communities and help them embed it. So they can grow it and create the same thing, so no young person gets left behind.”
Natalie hopes that the investment by two such well-regarded philanthropic organisations will encourage more investors to take risks and put trust in new, innovative models.
“This is helping change the lives of thousands of young people. And that changes things for future generations and intercepts ongoing cycles of disadvantage. And I think these philanthropists’ willingness to take a risk, and believing that there's another way to do things will change things systemically. And once that first ripple starts, it will build into something really meaningful.”
