Empowering young people through the HoMie Creative Academy

We partnered with HoMie, a streetwear clothing social enterprise that donates 100% of profits to support people experiencing homelessness or hardship, to deliver a series of workshops for young people participating in our Creative Academy.

HoMie (Homelessness Of Melbourne Incorporated Enterprise), as a social enterprise, aims to create a positive impact in more ways than one and they go beyond just the ethical production of their streetwear to do so. Through their training programs and academies, they support young people affected by homelessness or hardship to equip them with skills, confidence and experiences to become work-ready and better prepared for their future. 

If you haven’t heard, we recently partnered with HoMie, and gained supported them through the HoMie Pathway Alliance Program; an eight-month paid internship completed through HoMie’s retail store or through its Partners – Bonds, Cotton-On Group, Champion, Nike & TOMS. 

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However, 2020 has been a year of change for all. As the students couldn’t complete their retail placements this year as planned because of the COVID pandemic, we had to consider how we could pivot the program while still achieving the goal of equipping the students to be work-ready.

Our partnership meant we could explore how the program could be adapted to provide the students with exposure to the different kinds of jobs available in the creative industries. Together, we developed a 4-week Creative Academy program for our current students. 

As part of the Creative Academy, we invited a range of creative agencies and design studios to participate in the facilitation of workshops and training for the students. Through these engagements, the young people were able to gain broad entry-level knowledge of the variety of businesses operating in this sector across design research, marketing and multimedia. 

It was important to us that the workshops could be delivered in person, in order to best engage the young people. So (with a COVID-safe plan in place), we got to see the following wonderful professionals & businesses take part:

• Noisy Beast
• Anthony Moss, DDB Group
• Imogen Micklewright-Hill, The Likes of You Agency
• The Lab Strategy
• Richie Meldrum, Independent Brand Strategist & Writer
• Portable Agency
• Cherie Clonan, The Digital Picnic
• Emmaline Parry & Julia Strangio-McRae, Mirrored Horizons
  
  

Thank you to everyone who got involved in this program!