Our model

Strengthening the community around every young person

Download our 2026 Impact Report

PDF, 4 MB

What

What is Highlands Youth Co-Lab?

A whole-of-community approach to youth wellbeing in the Southern Highlands.

Highlands Youth Co-Lab (HYCL) started in 2024 with a simple idea: young people do best when the adults and places around them are strong. So rather than adding another service, we support the systems that support our young people.

We bring together families, schools, early learning centres, services and local groups across the Wingecarribee. We share knowledge, build skills and connect people, so support is easier to find and no one works in isolation.

Our approach is preventative and community-centred. We focus on the everyday adults in a young person's life, from parents, carers and grandparents to educators and counsellors, so help is there early.

A laughing son lifts his dad off the ground while another father smiles in the background, at the fathers and sons campfire evening
2024
Founded
6,025
Children, young people & families impacted
23
Community partners collaborating
26
Events & programs delivered

Why

Why HYCL is needed

1

Services are out of reach

Families in the Wingecarribee have significantly fewer youth wellbeing resources compared with metropolitan and SWSLHD LGAs, making early support harder to access and harder to navigate.

2

Rising and complex mental health pressures

Increasing suicides, self-injurious behaviours, disordered eating, higher numbers of neurodivergent children, school disengagement, and a sharp rise in parent loneliness, psychological distress, self-doubt and cost-of-living pressures are placing unprecedented strain on young people and the adults who support them.

3

No unified community approach

Services operate in isolation, with no shared structure to coordinate youth wellbeing across schools, families and community organisations.

Fathers and sons sitting around a campfire outdoors at dusk

Young people are worried about their parents' stress. Parents are worried about their children's mental health. So we work with whole families by:

✓

Creating more chances for parents and children to work together as children grow older

✓

Recognising that young people value connection, understanding and genuine dialogue

✓

Answering the call to strengthen family wellbeing

Source: ARACY Young and Wise 2026 roundtables

How

How we do it: three pillars

Educators seated in a bright training room listening to a presenter during a Counsellor Co-Lab session
Pillar 1

Counsellor Co-Lab →

Youth Mental Health First Aid participants gathered around a laptop, looking at the screen together
Pillar 2

Youth Mental Health First Aid →

Professor Lea Waters and the President of the Bowral District Children's Foundation standing on stage in front of the foundation's logo on the big screen
Pillar 3

Wellbeing Forum @ Our Table →

Let's connect

Whether you're a young person, a family member, an educator or a community partner, we're here to listen.

Send us a message