In April and May, Outward Bound held two of the country's premiere national youth leadership summits. The Rabobank Young Rural Leaders Summit was held in April and the National Aspiring Leaders Summit was held in May.

They were not the typical leadership summits. They were designed to put participants through a series of challenging situations to test their leadership and teamwork skills and to help them develep the resiliance and self confidence they need to become great leaders.

The Rabobank Young Rural Leaders Summit was held for 35 future leaders from rural communities in NSW, QLD and SA. The participants were chosen by their local Country Education Foundation, in an effort to provide extra education opportunities for people in rural Australia. It was made possible by Rabobank and the Thyne Reid Foundation.

Two weeks later, the Fourth Annual National Aspiring Leaders Summit was held. Thirty three students were selected by the Smith Family and came from a variety of backgrounds in NSW, NT, QLD, SA, VIC and WA. It was made possible through contributions made by the Westpac Foundation.

Both the seven day leadership summits were held at National Base. The summit activities included hiking expeditions, abseiling, caving, navigation expeditions and camping. The students were shocked the first time they learned they would be sleeping under a bivvy. 

As an integral part of their experience, each of the participants was also asked to create an action plan to implement a project on return to their communities. This is an opportunity to use their new leadership skills to enrich the own local area.

Participant’s projects ranged from mental health and anti-bullying awareness campaigns, to a three day event that benefits the whole community, raising bushfire awareness and readiness and helping the elderly.

Participant Brett Foran from Yass, NSW developed a plan to help students in wheelchairs to join in more activities. His goal is to construct more wheelchair accessible public facilities in parks.

Tom Niven from Inglewood, SA aims to get his road safety plan up and running with the back up and support of the local community.

“The course has taught me to be more confident with voicing my thoughts, experiences and feelings, and strive to make a difference in people lives,” he said.

Each community project had enormous potential and Outward Bound is looking forward to hearing about the success of their implementation.