A mural designed to showcase unity between different secondary schools in Ballarat, has been unveiled by participants in the 2021 Western Bulldogs Community Foundation’s (WBCF) Youth Leadership Project. 

Installed at the Ballarat Skatepark on Main Road, the mural was designed by Millie Collins, Hades Slater, Claire White and Jess Norton during the WBCF’s flagship youth program. The young people identified that there was a disjoint between the various public and private schools in Ballarat, and decided to join forces to show that all students - no matter their background, socioeconomic status or school, are equal.  

The mural depicts silhouettes of unidentifiable students to showcase equality, a series of keywords to demonstrate this and the names of every secondary school in Ballarat. 

Participant Millie Collins said they identified this issue and decided to tackle it for their social impact project, a key part of the Youth Leadership Project where participants look to improve issues facing their community.  

“Our whole idea was all about inclusivity. We’re trying to bring both the public and the private schools together and unite as one, to get rid of that gap, that barrier and that wall between the schools,” said Collins. 

Hades Slater said that the program allowed them to examine different issues thanks to the different speakers during the program. 

“From the very beginning we went on a camp and built trust with our group members and then bi-weekly we went through and talked to a lot of amazing people about different things and built our social impact project around that,” said Slater.  

Hannah Singleton, Youth Development Coordinator at the Western Bulldogs Community Foundation, spoke on the importance of projects like this in the development of participants as leaders in their community.  

“When young people are empowered to identify issues in their communities, and then find a solution to tackle them head on, it proves to them that they can make a difference in their community and gives them greater confidence to go and make more change in our world.”