Encourage.
Engage.
Educate.
Wyndham Bright
Young Leaders
About Our Work
1. Our Mission
2. Our Programs
Seed to Tree | Connect & Communicate
3. Our City
A Snapshot of Wyndham
4. Our Journey
Our Impact So Far
5. Our Story
Meet WBYL’s Founder, Rahima Ahmed
6. Our Future
The Road Ahead
Connect | Support Our Work
Our Mission &
Vision
Based in the West of Melbourne, Wyndham Bright Young Leaders (WBYL) is a community organization actively creating powerful and transformative programs for children and youth.
With over half of its population born overseas, our mission is to provide young people settled in Wyndham City the supportive space to learn, grow and build their confidence, while also addressing the culturally sensitive needs of parents and families in our local communities.
● Offerings
Our Programs
Seed to Tree
Our flagship program, Seed to Tree, is designed for 8-12 year olds from migrant or refugee backgrounds. Over the course of six weeks, we support children’s leadership skills development in culturally safe environments, with a focus on fostering healthy relationships, building confidence, mutual respect and responsibility, meaningful cultural exchange, and visionary goal-setting.
Connect and Communicate
For minority youths aged 13-17, our Connect and Communicate program is designed to meaningfully support stronger communication skills, deeper emotional intelligence, and healthy peer connections.
Creating an engaged youth culture in Melbourne’s West End.
Wyndham is one of the fastest-growing and culturally diverse regions in Greater Melbourne. Home to 17 suburbs and a coastline to the south, the region’s population is expected to exceed 500,000 by 2050.
But as Wyndham rapidly expands, available social and recreational services struggle to meet the complex demands of an increasingly young and multicultural population.
Here’s why this matters:
“9.3% of 15-24 year olds in Wyndham are disengaged with school or employment.”
A Snapshot of Wyndham, Wyndham City Council
“21% of children entering primary school are considered developmentally vulnerable.”
Australian Early Development Census 2022
“15% of people in Melbourne’s West perceive that they are unable to access necessary social supports.”
Victorian Population Health Survey 2022
“Victoria Metro Areas have the most expensive government schools in the country.”
Futurity Investment, “The Cost of Education in Australia 2025”
“In Australia, 28% of parents are stressed or extremely stressed about paying for their child’s education.”
ABC News, “Fears cost-of-living crisis worsening child poverty as families make ‘impossible decisions.’”
“Young people who have migrated to Australia from African countries are up to 10 times more likely to develop a mental illness than their Australian-born counterparts due to experiences of early childhood trauma, loss and separation.”
SBS News, “Why Victoria’s migrant communities are in need of more mental health support”
As an active response to community needs and the Wyndham 2050 Vision, we’re creating opportunities for healthy cultural exchange, meaningful connections, and community leadership skills for Wyndham’s youth.
At Wyndham Bright Young Leaders, we aim to…
Affirm
culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children and youth by honouring the deep values of their own communities, as well as appreciating the gamut of cultural diversity across Wyndham City.
Instill
a deep and accessible practice of strong personal and collective values, such as leadership, responsibility, and respect.
Support
children and youth in developing healthy social skills by building meaningful connections and relationships with fellow program peers, and encouraging positive cross-cultural exchanges.
Broaden
the perspectives of children and youth by offering opportunities to interact meaningfully with peers of different backgrounds.
Build
children and youth’s confidence, both in their sense of self as well as their lived cultural experiences.
Our Journey So Far
𖧹
Our Journey So Far 𖧹
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2019
We ran our first series of workshops at the Penrose Community Centre in Tarneit. With the attentive participation of 25 young people over the course of six weeks, we explored the topics of friendship, culture, respect, responsibility, confidence, and goal setting.
This program was made possible with the support of a small grant, and volunteers from community. We’re grateful for the support, and to Councillor Josh Gilligan for attending our program’s Graduation Ceremony!
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2020 - 2021
When Melbourne went into its Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, there was still a deep need for young people to connect with each other and stay engaged while participating in remote education.
We pivoted to a virtual program, offering leadership training to 37 keen learners, and expanded our reach by inviting two guest speakers to join us.
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2022
After two years of virtual programming, the return to in-person delivery marked a significant milestone for WBYL. The shift was in direct response to feedback from youth expressing a strong desire to reconnect with their peers and community face-to-face.
Post-lockdown, the program became a crucial platform for rebuilding social connections, fostering a sense of belonging, and addressing the isolation many young people experienced during the pandemic. By bringing 24 participants safely together in-person (and online), we supported their personal growth and mental well-being, whilst igniting a spirit of collaboration during a time of transition and recovery.
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2023 - 2025
With a full return to in-person programming, WBYL not only equipped youth with leadership skills, but actively encouraged them to volunteer in their communities.
Putting their newly developed skills into practice, participants were introduced to three nonprofit organizations, where they made a tangible impact on local projects and fostered stronger community ties.
80+
Graduates
45
Communities Represented
25+
Community Leaders
“Something that made me happy in this session was learning what a good and not good friend is like.”
- 11 year old participant
“I learnt what makes someone responsible and what makes someone irresponsible.”
- 9 year old participant
Our Story: Meet
Rahima Ahmed
I’m an Oromo migrant woman, proud mother of four, former local ward candidate, and community facilitator working to build positive social change and meaningful youth engagement in Melbourne’s West for the past decade.
My journey into community work began with, and is deeply rooted in, my own lived experiences.
When I first migrated to Australia in 2009, laying down roots in my newly adopted country was profoundly challenging. From learning to speak English to navigating employment barriers and culture shock, I struggled to regain both my footing and self-confidence, as well as fully support my children in their academic and recreational goals.
Two years later, I settled into a corner of Wyndham with my family and, seeking to ground myself, I took up a leadership training program (Building Blocks) offered by Wyndham City Council that explored local community leadership and capacity building. Slowly but surely, I began to feel—for the first time since moving to Melbourne—inspired and empowered to both belong to, and create for, community. Using the leadership skills I’d now learned from the program, I founded the Oromo Women’s Networking Group, which brought together local women with a variety of lived experiences who, like me, longed to build confident, expansive lives.
But the real turning point was when, at the beginning of the Summer holidays one year, my youngest son Murad shared that he was beyond relieved to be done with school. I thought this was strange, because Murad usually enjoyed going to school and learning with his peers.
“How come you’re so relieved?”
”Because I hate Wednesdays.”
”… But why?!”
”Because I hate Show and Tell. And Show and Tell is always on Wednesdays.”
As I dug deeper, I realized with a jolt that my son’s experiences were mirroring my own struggles with confidence and belonging. At first, I thought this was simply impossible. After all, my son was born and raised in Melbourne; his first language was English; and he was a strong, hardworking student.
But as I reflected on our shared realities with growing concern and bewilderment, I slowly recognized that our struggles spoke to greater, systemic issues at large. In the following weeks, I began reaching out to other immigrant mothers in earnest, including those of the Oromo Women’s Networking Group, to see if they were also facing similar challenges.
By the end of the school holidays, it was quite clear to me that they were.
In Wyndham, where over half of the region’s residents are born overseas, children from non-English speaking backgrounds face unique challenges in their educational journeys.
Through shared community knowledge from the Oromo Women’s Networking Group—the collective I’d founded for African women like myself to exchange cultural knowledge, discuss local issues, and identify community gaps in support for families and children—I learned that local youth from migrant and refugee backgrounds often grapple with a lack of confidence in meaningfully engaging with peers from different cultural backgrounds. This heavily impacts their ability to navigate diverse social settings, build enriching connections, and access necessary support networks.
Leading with a cohort of families from within the Oromo Women’s Networking Group, I created Wyndham Bright Young Leaders as both a proactive response to pressing community needs, as well as to fill a widening gap in existing youth services across Wyndham. Since the start of this work, our programming has proudly grown to include participants from 45 different communities!
● Our Future
The Road Ahead…
As Wyndham Bright Young Leaders enters its sixth year (!), I’m struck by how this program is as much a gift to me as it is to the youth who take part in it. Helping young people realize the value of their voices and actions has inspired me to grow in areas of my life, too.
To expand and strengthen our future youth programming, I recently completed my Diploma for Community Services at Victoria University. To better learn the ropes of positive cultural exchange, I’ve leaned into the role of VP of the Oromo Community Association of Australia. And in a rather public demonstration of leadership training, I ran as a ward candidate in Wyndham Council’s 2024 Elections!
My children often remind me that I’ve come a long way from the old, fearful Rahima. I tell them that they’ve come even further. As I witness their character growth and development everyday, they are my ultimate reminder that a robust culture of youth empowerment and engagement doesn’t only benefit young people—it transforms our communities, our societies, and ourselves.
“If you plan for one year, become a farmer. If you plan for ten years, plant a tree. If you plan for a hundred years, educate your children.”
— my father, Ibrahim Ahmed
Get in touch.
Whether you’re curious about our programs and events, or hoping to collaborate, or looking to become a community donor, I would love to connect with you. Please fill out the form below!