Voyage date: 30 November-10 December 2024

The Windeward Bound Trust’s Annual Youth Leadership Challenge is a working partnership with Rotary Tasmania that also receives support from the Migrant Resource Centre of Southern Tasmania. This program promotes understanding, inclusiveness, and community by bringing together 20 young people of vastly different backgrounds for a ten-day voyage aboard the STV Windeward Bound, and giving them the opportunity to connect and grow with one another in both the short and long term.

The Youth Leadership Challenge is open to youths between the ages of 14–18 living in Tasmania -- ten locals with an interest in mentoring and creating a more inclusive Tasmanian community, and ten from refugee backgrounds who recently settled in Tasmania. This program is fortunate to receive generous financial support from a number of sponsors, which allows us to significantly reduce the cost for all participants.

Those who wish to participate as mentors are required to fund-raise $2,500 in donations to further offset these costs, and youth from refugee backgrounds are eligible for a significant subsidy to cover the majority of their voyage fee, with additional financial assistance available if needed. The Windeward Bound Trust provides some guidance to mentors in their fundraising (including a fundraising kit with tips and hints), and assists in matching mentors with Rotary clubs sponsors. Nearly half of all Tasmanian Rotary clubs have sponsored mentors in past years, and most mentors from previous voyages have received some amount of Rotary sponsorship. There are also various bursaries that can be applied for.

“ There were hundreds of hilarious moments and never a moment that I and all of my fellow crew members didn’t have a big smile on our faces. The voyage was full of learning opportunities, ranging from general shipboard knowledge to communication and leadership skills along with developing an understanding of diversity and different cultures.”- Holly Bowd, Mentor
“They really have a self belief now that they an do something and they are proud, as they should be, of stepping out of their comfort zones and communities to do this.”- Sharon Wright, MRC North's Youth Settlement Pathways Coordinator
“We need to hear this and we need to be told this, because we see it on the news but we can’t connect with it.. thank you for sharing with me”- Eloise to Julie in a conversation about her fleeing her home country

Rotary tasmania relationship

The Windeward Bound Trust has enjoyed a significant relationship with Rotary in Tasmania since 1994, and the Rotary Club of Hobart has been a driving force in the development and success of the Youth Leadership Challenge since its inception in 2012. In previous years, a four-member coordinating team from the Rotary Club of Hobart has assisted the Windeward Bound Trust with the planning for the voyage, the promotion to Rotary Clubs across the state, and the selection of mentors. This year, having become an official program of Rotary Tasmania, this team will have additional Rotarian members from around the District.

Rotary Clubs throughout the District actively support the program through assisting with the recruitment and selection of mentors, and from time to time with sponsorship. Involvement with the Youth Leadership Challenge not only promotes ongoing outreach by clubs into their communities, but also provides the opportunity for them to hear inspiring speakers in the form of sponsored mentors, post-voyage. Over the past six years, 48% of Tasmanian Rotary Clubs have been sponsors, ten of those clubs having been sponsors in multiple years. We have received feedback from several clubs that their mentor speakers were some of the more memorable they’ve had, and we have already had unprompted enquiries for the upcoming voyage from clubs interested in sponsoring young Tasmanians.

Rotary International and Sail Training International

Sail Training International, which the Windeward Bound is a member of and Rotary International share the common aims of encouraging youth development which supporting efforts towards international friendship and understanding. STAR stands for Sail Training and Rotary and is the title of the Sail Training International initiative to enhance collaborations ranging from Rotary Club sponsorship of trainees sailing on tall ships, to projects undertaken jointly by Rotary clubs and host ports.

If you would like a mentor application form please download or contact us via email, or if you need a New Tasmanian application form please download or contact us via this email