The Portfolio Project wins NSW Youth Work Award for Best Innovative Partnerships

In early 2013 a group of advertising professionals from creative to account management started a partnership with Disability Services Australia to create a program for young job seekers with disability. The program was started by winning new business briefs, so the young people could be trained on live briefs, for real clients.

Last night the program ‘The Portfolio Project’ took out the NSW Youth Work Award in one of the most competitive categories of the night for Best Innovative Partnerships.

The young people got to work on a government campaign through to not for profit work for Asthma Foundation and a campaign that involved various government and NGO stakeholders that got coverage on channel 9 and 10 and was launched in Federation Square.

Spearheaded by Duncan Mah and Richard Kahotea, the program has run for around 9 months, placing 2 young people into advertising agencies. The program is called ‘The Portfolio Project’.

“We wanted to give young people with disability a real go in advertising or the creative industries in general as we know there are many barriers to employment for a young person with disability, and we wanted to give them an edge when going for their first job with a portfolio of real work to show,” Says Mah.

“The feedback has been great from clients with clients providing references for the young people’s work and even paying for their time and contribution to campaigns.

“Stay tuned for more info as a showcase of the young people’s work is coming up in November.”