RYA 2021: Rural Year 11s meet in Melbourne

What is a Rural Youth Ambassador (RYA)? The RYA program runs annually, within several states and territories of Australia. Each year, a new Ambassador cohort is created in each state, consisting of young people from across the country who attend rural schools. 

Each state group works collaboratively, establishing a theme or focus for the year that is based on their experiences of growing up in a rural area. 

As the Rural Youth Ambassadors work together and build their leadership skills, they also support their community of peers back home by sharing knowledge, creating workshops and programs, and finding ways to connect successful rural people back to their communities.

This year’s Victorian RYA’s come from all over the state, from places like Yarrawonga, Foster, Ouyen and everywhere in between. 

The first forum is a chance for everyone to come together, meet and talk about growing up rural. The ambassadors will talk about the challenges, and also the highlights of going to school in rural Australia. From here, the group will create some unique solutions and ideas about how to make our rural communities even better. Eventually they will present their ideas to governments, politicians and education officials throughout the year.

Stay tuned throughout 2021, as our Rural Youth Ambassadors from Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Northern Territory and Queensland work towards improving the experiences of rural young people all over the country.