Throughout 2018 Lithgow’s youth will be offered a range of educational and employment opportunities through the Future Finders Program which aims to inspire young people to build their own futures within Lithgow.  

“Lithgow’s young people have tremendous talent and ideas. We are excited to be launching the Future Finders program as it will help to develop the necessary skills and knowledge to start making ideas a reality,” Lithgow City Council Mayor Stephen Lesslie said. 

The Future Finders program has been made possible through the Youth Opportunities grant provided by the Department of Family and Community Services.

Local MP Paul Toole announced that Lithgow City Council had been successful in securing a state government grant of $48,000 for projects enhancing youth leadership and participation in the community. 

The grant allows for educational and employment tasters, a youth leadership forum and business workshops. 

As part of the Future Finders program local high school students will be invited to participate in an educational taster by visiting local education providers to sample what they have to offer.

“It is all about empowering young people to show them that they can own or run a business themselves,” community development officer for Lithgow City Council Viktoria Gulabovski said. 

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Students will also be offered the opportunity to participate in a youth leadership forum where they will develop leadership skills and be provided the platform to comment on local issues.

Ms Gulabovski said that the program is in place to broaden the minds of young people and open them up to things they didn’t know about. 

“We want to show young people that you don’t need to go to the city to pursue business, you can stay in Lithgow and make a go of it as well,” she said. 

Lithgow Council is also asking local businesses and organisations to get involved by registering to host a young person for a day to highlight what their work and workplace is all about.

Facilitators will help to run the courses, many being young and successful entrepreneurs from Lithgow. 

“With the right information and the right people we can open up avenues for people that they might not have known about, such as creating an online business and working from home,” Ms Gulabovski said. 

There will also be a series of workshops for young people aimed at developing skills that will support small business startups and entrepreneurship.  

The first set of Future Finders workshops will be delivered by the BEC and will be held at the Lithgow Library from 4:30pm – 7:30pm.

All workshop attendees will receive a certificate of attendance, the workshops are free and open to young people aged 15-24 years old.

The following workshops are now open for registration:

You can register your interest now at: https://council.lithgow.com/youth/future-finders or call Council’s Community Development Team on (02) 6354 9999.