About the Youth Mentorship Program
Young people living with chronic illness and disability have powerful insights to share—but they’re rarely given a seat at the table when it comes to shaping the healthcare system. The Child UnLimited Youth Mentorship Program is changing that by equipping young people with the tools, skills, and support to step into advocacy and leadership roles in health and research.
Launched in March 2023, the Youth Mentorship Program was co-designed by a network of young consumers, led by Child UnLimited Consumer Board member Tiana Kittos, a passionate advocate with lived experience of childhood cancer. The program is built by young people, for young people, and supports a new generation of lived experience leaders to influence real change.
Why It Matters
Young people are experts in their own lives. Yet too often, decisions about healthcare happen without them. This program is helping to change the culture by:
Lifting youth voices into leadership positions
Strengthening the role of consumers in health research and service design
Building pathways for young people with chronic conditions to lead, influence, and inspire
Empowering young people to become the health advocates of tomorrow.
What We’re Doing
The program brings together 15 mentees—young people living with chronic illness or disability—with mentors from across the health, research, and not-for-profit sectors. These mentors share their time, skills, and networks to help mentees grow their confidence, voice, and impact.
Together, they’ve co-created a range of meaningful activities, including:
Leading and co-facilitating consumer engagement workshops
Providing feedback on real grant proposals and research projects
Presenting at national conferences and health forums
Co-creating art to express and explore their experiences of healthcare transition
This isn’t just training—it’s action, creativity, and lived experience in motion.
What’s Next?
The insights from Rural Kids GPS will help inform how coordinated, community-based models of care can be scaled across rural Australia. The project is working hand-in-hand with families, health services, and policymakers to ensure the system meets the real needs of rural children and their communities.