Creating Chances, in partnership with Multicultural NSW’s COMPACT, recently hosted an intensive 3-day residential Leadership Camp, marking a significant opportunity for young leaders to develop crucial life skills in a fun, outdoor environment. These leadership camps for high schoolers provide opportunities for young people to develop essential skills through practical experiences.
This camp was specifically designed to enhance participants’ leadership, coaching, and personal skills, while simultaneously fostering social connection, building confidence, and promoting intercultural understanding.
The camp brought together students from Arthur Phillip High School, Miller High School, Condell Park High School, John Edmondson High School, and Lurnea High School (including students from the COMPACT & IEC groups), creating a powerful cohort focused on personal and community growth.
This leadership camp for schools encouraged students to connect with peers beyond their own school communities.
Thoughtfully designed by Creating Chances’ Shegofa Hassani and Ellis Cleaver, the camp’s curriculum featured a mix of outdoor adventure activities and targeted Creating Chances-led workshops. All activities were aimed at promoting personal growth, encouraging inclusion, and developing strong community leadership qualities in the students.
The outdoor adventure segment provided students with opportunities for teamwork and challenge, including exhilarating activities such as Kayaking, Archery Tag, and Swimming. These physical challenges were complemented by crucial down-time activities, including Campfire & team bonding sessions.
Activities like these are also common in a summer camp for high school students, where outdoor participation and teamwork support personal development.
Key workshop topics included Grassroots Coaching and comprehensive sessions on Transferable Skills, Storytelling & Communication workshops, alongside promoting empathy and global perspective through Cultural Exchange and World Traditional Games sessions.
This leadership youth camp also gave students opportunities to practise communication, teamwork and inclusive leadership.
The program also integrated specialised learning through Rexona’s Breaking Limits workshops, which centred on inclusion, youth leadership, mental health, and dealing with ‘sweat’ (stress/anxiety).
“Seeing everyone come together and be so open to making new connections and learning from students outside of their own school circles was inspiring. As a Head Facilitator it was an awesome opportunity to bring my knowledge to the table and guide the groups by building their capacity’s for new skills through activities they may not have participated in before.
Not only was it a huge opportunity for our students to grow, it was a fantastic few days of staff connection and getting to build on my own individual knowledge as a facilitator from my peers. This team is very special in many ways, and being able to learn from one another and to constantly be learning and developing our expertise is great. Having the space to do that through camps like these is huge.”
Shegofa Hassani, Head Facilitator
By combining physical activity, targeted skill development, and cross-cultural interaction over three days, the Creating Chances COMPACT Residential Leadership Camp offered a comprehensive platform for these young people to learn about themselves, connect with their peers, and step into their potential as future community leaders.
This residential camp program supported personal growth, stronger peer relationships and the development of community leadership skills.
For more information about our camps click here.
