16 young people from Ballarat Grammar and Mount Rowan Secondary College visited the offices of Integra yesterday to showcase their crazy good ideas developed through their participation in a Social Innovators program, proudly supported by Integra, in Term 1. 

Led by Crazy Ideas College (CIC), this action-packed workshop had teams pitching their ideas to Integra staff, and working alongside the expertise of different departments to gain feedback on how they can bring their idea to life in the local community.

From learning how Integra’s engineers and project managers navigate a production process from ideation to launch, to workshopping how to launch a bio degradable plant kit, community cookbook, or sports day for the Lucas area, the teams developed a range of skills to assist their own pursuits.

The teams drew on Integra’s expertise in learning how to create a beautiful community and their challenges of waste management, whilst others received advice on how to shape the logistics of their own programs.

The ideas being discussed included:
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‍Plant-A-Pot –

Passionate about environmental waste, this team is working to design and create a fully compostable pot that you can plant and leave in the ground. As a smart place to start, the team will have a year group from their school collect all the plastic plant pots from the community as part of their community service project and re-purpose the pots. 

This team wants to rid the earth from plastic, one small step at a time. Their vision includes creating a shock-campaign in Bunnings featuring a sculpture made from the plastic pots to demonstrate how much waste is currently produced; creating a biodegradable ‘Plant-A-Pot’ kit for children and families to encourage sustainability from a young age; as well as re-purposing the pots around Ballarat Grammar.

In collaboration with Integra’s landscaping managers, this team explored the steps involved in producing their own biodegradable pot, working through the phases from brainstorming, development, testing, to launch. This team also explored the waste management strategies currently employed by Integra.
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Fit Friday –

Shocked by the statistics that only ½ of all kids get their recommended daily activity, this team is working to get young people active through an awesome school program called ‘Fit Fridays’. To help kids build healthy habits and keep active, this team is partnering with local sporting clubs and organisations to run fun sessions with primary schools across Australia.

Their first ‘Fit Friday’ saw Year 5 and 6 students from Minors Rest Primary School participating in fun football and netball drills with support from Kelly Sports.

This team worked with Integra staff to brainstorm ideas to make community sport more accessible for both young people and adults, such as how to build confidence and encourage engagement with local teams. This also involved designing as ports day for the Lucas community to keep the community active.

The Basketball Bin – 

Sick of seeing rubbish and litter around their school, this eco-conscious team has designed a way to make throwing away your trash a fun game. They intend on providing every school in Victoria with a basketball net style clip on that can easily be fixed to any bin, encouraging young people to “swish their rubbish”. To trial this idea, the team will start with their own school and track and monitor litter levels.  

This team worked alongside Integra staff to learn how to create a beautiful community and build pride in your environment, as well as mapped out the actions needed to expand their rubbish clean up competition to the Lucas community. 

Scent-sation–

Passionate about health and wellbeing, this team aspires to develop a fork that makes anything you eat taste amazing, so the kale and spinach salad you have everyday for lunch can taste just like a burger! To kick off their idea, the team plans to run healthy cooking and nutrition classes at their school to educate students from a young age on the benefits of eating healthy.

With Integra’s marketing expertise, this team developed catchy slogans and campaign ideas to get young people thinking how to ‘pimp their veggies’. They also brainstormed ways to encourage their school and Lucas community to submit creative recipes and meal ideas to form a fun cookbook for kids and parents.

Game2Life–

From ‘how to pay taxes’ to ‘how to take care of your mental health’, there are lots of experiences of adulthood which can feel daunting. This is why young people need to learn the best tools and strategies to live a happy and successful life.

This team has invented a game that teaches young people ‘how to win at life’. Originally envisioned as a virtual reality video game, this team have pivoted their idea to creating a board game which teaches young people how to navigate life’s challenges.

With help from Integra staff, this team brainstormed all the challenges that adults may face, whether that’s deciding what meal to cook for dinner, or being made redundant from your job. To combat these challenges, the team created superheroes with all the skills and capabilities needed to tackle any obstacle and ultimately, win their game.