Schools within the Asia-Pacific region have a wealth of smart, talented, and passionate school-aged athletes. However, only a small percentage of these young people will realise their ambitions to compete in an Olympic, Paralympic or World Championship event. Nonetheless, their passion for sport, combined with their leadership and academic capacities, position them as key stakeholders in ensuring that sport for social good initiatives, such as the 2032 Legacy, achieve their aspirations for the broader community.

This PHASE workshop provides an overview of the leadership and pedagogical curriculum underpinning our UQ Youth Game Changers initiative. Developed in collaboration with Queensland schools, Youth Game Changers is an initiative of the Queensland Centre for Olympic and Paralympic Studies, The University of Queensland.

Youth Game Changers seeks to mitigate the impediment that “”you cannot be what you cannot see””. The program facilitates students’ interaction with authentic, high-performing role models within the context of a purposeful, experiential event. Drawing on self-determination theory, YGC invests in students’ individual and collective potential for enacting advocacy and change within the context of sport for social good initiatives. Workshop participants will explore the entrepreneurial, leadership and pedagogical approaches of the YGC curriculum with a view to delivery within their own schools and/or participation in the UQ Youth Game Changers annual event.