The Office of the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur recently brought a group of innovators on a mission to the Bundaberg Region as part of the ResilientQ project, with the aim of tackling issues of youth disengagement and climate impacts.
In partnership with Bundaberg Regional Council and Best Life Adventures travel company, the group of local and state-wide innovators undertook the five-day resilience mission which included stops at Childers Nature Camp, Biggenden, Burnett River, Platypus Park, Burnett Youth Learning Centre and Lady Elliot Island to name a few.
The group of innovators were encouraged to step outside of their comfort zones on a journey from summit to sea inspired by the hero’s journey undertaken by Eleanor Carey, which was a story of true resilience and overcoming a series of barriers, mental and physical, to achieve an amazing goal.
It all started with a call to adventure that Eleanor took notice of and decided to pursue.
She challenged the group, including a small group of student leaders from Shalom College, to look out for their own calls to adventure and seize the opportunity.
They also engaged with local community groups to learn more about the region and offered their thoughts and ideas around youth disengagement and climate impacts.
Participating group members included Bradley Crosbie from Where Youth Live Dreams (WYLD) Projects as well as students from Shalom College and Kepnock State High School who offered their first-hand insights from the next generation which ranged from focussing on ways that youth can make an impact to the environment and wellbeing across the world (such as providing enough drinking water to people in third world countries) to providing alternate learning opportunities and career pathways or coming up with ways to incentivise them to remain or return to the regions.
The ResilientQ project
ResilientQ is a project run by the Office of the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur in partnership with local government councils where groups of innovators undergo missions to regional communities to build resilience and share in physical, mental and cultural experiences with like-minded individuals.
Innovators are encouraged to use their resilience, leadership skills, innate innovation skills and business acumen to work with locals to identify innovative strategies and solutions to help them future-proof their communities.
The third ResilientQ mission will take place in Croydon and Etheridge in June with more information on the project available here.
