Patterson River students embrace Social Innovation with support from Winslow Infrastructure

Transforming collaboration between young people and business is one of the key tenets at Crazy Ideas College. Winslow Infrastructure is a community partner that recognises the importance and value of collaboration between young people and businesses.

Winslow supported Crazy Ideas College in running a Social Innovators Program at Patterson River Secondary College. This program guided and empowered 75 students to create new, bold, and innovative ideas focused on making life better for the people around them.  

Emerging leaders from Winslow Infrastructure attended the pitch event, engaging with students by providing insight and feedback. They shared what they loved about the students' ideas and offered suggestions on how to extend and enhance them.

The program's impact was amplified when local radio station RPP FM featured the workshop in a short video.  

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Crazy Good Ideas

Some of the fantastic ideas that the student teams developed include:

• The Social Microwave: This high-tech microwave locks food inside for a set amount of time to encourage users to get outside and connect with their community. "Lock your food inside. Go outside and socialise!"
• Green House Micro-Garden: This project aims to ensure that having a small yard is no barrier to enjoying delightful spaces where people can connect with nature. The team will develop and distribute "how to build a micro-garden" kits in the local community and run a competition to design and build a micro-garden for three lucky residents.  
• Community Dog: This initiative recognises that being close to animals improves well-being but that many people who would benefit from pet companionship cannot care for a pet full-time. Community Dog makes it easier for people to share pet ownership with others, fostering both animal connections and new friendships.
• Earth Code: This project involves creating a video game that shows the consequences of different choices on the environment. The team will start by creating a "choose your own adventure" book to be displayed at the local library and distributed through schools.

Building Strong Partnerships

Winslow is one of several businesses recognising the importance of making strong partnerships with all members of society, including young people.

Winslow's emerging leaders supported the student teams as they worked on bringing their ideas to life!

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"The ideas generated today demonstrated such futuristic and mature thinking, and really showed a thorough understanding of real-life issues, and some awesome ideas around how to solve future problems."

Ebony Fisher, Senior Manager of Communications and Engagement

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"I find it exciting because we're starting to believe that this could actually happen, and we could actually make something that works."

Ally, Year 9 Student

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"It's such an innovative way for us to participate in the community in which we work. What we find working with these students is that their energy is so great… as a company we find it intoxicating."

Damian Murrihy, General Manager at Winslow Infrastructure

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"We spend a lot of time trying to develop critical and creative thinking skills for our students… making sure the work that the students are doing at school and the skills they are developing, they're able to apply in the real world."

Daniel Dew, Principal, Patterson River Secondary College

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