Hearing Young Voices, Hearing Young Hearts
YCBC is a youth-led organisation dedicated to creating podcasts that support young peoples mental health and well being. We foster the supportive space for them to share open and meaningful conversations, so they are empowered to be heard, and build a caring community among their peers. Rooted in a caring faith, we aim for young people to finding joy and positivity in their lives.
Who is YCBC?
The Young Catholic Broadcasting Community Limited (YCBC) is a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), focused on addressing the significant health challenges experienced by young people, particularly in Victoria.
YCBC’s mission is to inspire, support and equip young people of all backgrounds to achieve better mental health outcomes – specifically by reducing social isolation, anxiety, and related risk factors – using state-of-the-art media and community engagement programs. All activities are planned and delivered through an empathetic and non-stigmatising approach that prioritises the well being and personal growth of every participant.
YCBC will establish a purpose-built studio, equipping it with advanced audio-visual technology to foster youth engagement and communication, in producing and outputting content (via recorded podcasts). Our work will include:
- Establishing a state-of-the-art studio for podcasting and webcasting, accessible to schools, as well as young people interested in creativity, social connection, education and inspiration, as well as exploring faith.
- Offering free audio marketing tools for schools to boost enrolments, strengthen community ties, and showcase the work and learning of youth.
- Broadcasting a diverse range of content, including:
- Youth-created programs relevant and helpful to their peers
- Student-produced work for academic purposes
- Content from other not-for-profit organisations
- Messages from school principals and educational leaders
- Catholic masses, concerts, drama, and expert interviews
- Providing support, encouragement, and training for young people in media production.
- Collaborating with local and international production companies to share values-driven content.
- Assisting Catholic schools with media and marketing to promote enrolment.
- Creating programs that deepen understanding of the Catholic faith and address mental health challenges.
YCBC does not operate with any expertise as a diagnostic service; rather, a specialist health-promotion media hub focused on mental health prevention, awareness and community support for young people.
Our Objectives for Purpose
The main objective of YCBC is to conduct and support initiatives that promote the prevention of mental health disorders among young people in Australia. Our key activities include:
- Promoting strategies to young people which will help them identify, prevent and manage their mental health;
- Empowering the youth to help their peers who are facing such health concerns, with empathy and non-judgemental support;
- Providing our participants with methodologies to help to identify concerns in themselves and others, as well as reducing, as best possible, the impacts of mental health conditions.
- Improving the outcomes of these health concerns by bringing young peoples voices to light amongst their peers, their community, and beyond, and developing their skills in communication.
- Creating, developing and broadcasting podcasts that foster awareness, prevention and stigmatisation of mental health, while connecting participants with professional support as needed.
Why the Catholic Mission?
YCBC’s commitment draws on the Catholic church’s global tradition of health care and compassion, but it is inclusive, welcoming those of all faiths (or none), seeking to build a community network to enable the dissemination of strategies to improve mental health outcomes and to inform the community of an available facility which has programmes designed to improve mental health.
The Catholic Church is, by most measures, the largest non-government provider of social, health, and educational services, globally helping all people, regardless of their faith. It operates roughly 5,500 hospitals, 18,000 clinics, 16,000 homes for the elderly and disabled, 20,000 Catholic healthcare facilities, with the majority in developing countries. Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s umbrella humanitarian network, operates in over 200 countries and spends over $AUD 4 billion annually.