South Australian
Youth Forum.
THE PROBLEM
Organisations want youth voice. Doing it well is tricky.
More and more organisations want to embed young people in their decisions, as equal decision-makers or simply by considering their perspective. Strategic plans reference it. Boards are asking for it. Funding bodies require it.
Wanting it and doing it well are two very different things. That is exactly where SAYF comes in.
Finding the young people.
🙌
Building a standing group of engaged, diverse young people takes time and infrastructure. SAYF is that group, already built. A cohort of young South Australians aged 16 to 24, meeting every month, ready to work.
Making it genuinely useful.
💡
Getting real insight from young people takes careful facilitation, the right environment, and real trust in the room. SAYF designs every session to get there. We minute everything and turn it into a recommendations report your team can actually act on.
Valuing the contribution.
🤝
Young people's perspectives are expertise. At SAYF every member is engaged and compensated for every session. That means people come back, stay engaged, and bring their honest selves to the work. Which is what makes the insight worth having.
You bring the questions.
We bring the room.
We design and facilitate the workshop, minute everything, synthesise the findings, and deliver a report your team can act on.
THAT IS WHERE SAYF SITS
FOR ORGANISATIONS
You want youth voice that actually means something.
Youth insight that actually goes somewhere. We work with you to design the right session, facilitate it with our standing cohort of young South Australians, and deliver a recommendations report your team can act on. However much or little you want to be involved in the process, we make it work. You bring the questions. We take it from there.
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
You want to make change & finally get paid for it.
SAYF is a standing cohort of twenty five young South Australians who meet monthly, armed with their diverse and truthful lived-experience, to shape real work for real clients & get compensated for this expertise. Our cohort is selected annually. Express your interest below and we will be in touch when applications open.
WHAT WE OFFER
Group youth voice,
professionally
done.
We work with your organisation to design the right session for what you need to know, then we take it from there. Our crew of young South Australians aged 16 to 24 do the work. You receive a written recommendations report you can actually act on. You never manage a young person directly.
WHERE IT STARTS
A free meeting.
No pitch, no pressure.
Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute online meeting with SAYF leaders. We talk through your project, your questions, and what you are hoping to learn. We figure out together whether our crew is the right fit, and if the vibes align, we get to work.
🖥️
30 minutes, completely free
SAYF leaders with you on an online meeting. You talk us through what you need. No commitment required.
✏️
We help you shape the brief
Not sure exactly what to ask? That is fine. We will help you work out the right questions before anything is booked.
✅
If the fit is right, we book in
If the vibes align and the project is a good fit for our crew, we take it from there.
HOW IT WORKS
Youth voice made accessible.
For you & for us.
Every workshop follows the same six-step process.
01
Free Meet and Greet
A 30-minute online meeting with SAYF. We talk through your project, what you are hoping to learn, and whether our crew feels like the right fit. No commitment required, just a conversation.
02
Submit Your Questions
We share a simple brief with you to help shape the questions and themes you want to explore. You fill it in and send it back at least two weeks before the workshop. That way we can design something that really works.
03
We Design the Workshop
SAYF leaders take your questions and shape them into a facilitated session that gets honest, specific responses from our cohort. We are happy to share the designed workshop with you beforehand
04
Workshop Runs
Your workshop runs at our monthly Saturday session with SAYF members. Everything is minuted. Every member is compensated.
05
Report Delivered
Within two weeks you receive a written recommendations report. Clear themes, honest insights, and member perspectives, written to be useful, not just to tick a box.
06
You Close the Loop
Around three months later we follow up to ask how the recommendations were used. It is a small thing that means a lot: to our members, and to making sure this work genuinely goes somewhere.
HOW WE GOT HERE
Four years of advocacy. Now built to last.
The South Australian Youth Forum started as a grassroots initiative in 2021, founded by Amber Brock-Fabel at 17 years old with a belief that young people deserved a genuine seat at the table. Not a token mention in a strategy document. Real inclusion in the decisions that shape their lives.
For four years, SAYF ran as a fully volunteer-led program. Two branches of young people met monthly, authored statewide surveys, produced annual reports, and presented findings directly to ministers and parliament. The work was real. The impact was real. The infrastructure, however, was not keeping up.
Grant landscapes dried up. The grassroots model created more overhead than value. And slowly, without any marketing, organisations started seeking SAYF out and paying for workshop facilitation.
That was the signal.
SAYF has now restructured as a professional youth voice consultancy. The mission has not changed. What has changed is the infrastructure around it, designed to pay the young people doing the work, sustain the program long term, and make advocacy something that does not have to be a labour of love alone.
2021
Founded by Amber Brock-Fabel, aged 17
SAYF launched as a grassroots organisation with a simple belief: young people should be in the room where decisions are made. Two branches, monthly meetings, statewide surveys.
2022 - 2025
Four years of annual reports to parliament
SAYF delivered annual statewide youth surveys and presented findings directly to ministers and government. Peer-reviewed research. Keynotes. Roundtables. Submissions to national inquiries.
2023 - 2025
Organisations started paying for workshops
Without marketing, SAYF began attracting paid design workshop work. Organisations sent questions, SAYF designed and facilitated sessions, and delivered written recommendations. The demand was real and growing.
2025
A new model, built to last
SAYF restructures as a professional youth voice consultancy with an aim to have a sustainable financial model and a commitment to paying every young person who contributes their expertise. Same mission. Better infrastructure.
RECOGNITION
The work has been noticed.
SAYF and its people have received recognition at local, state, and national level. These awards belong to the whole cohort and the community we have built together.
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES AWARD
YOUNG SA OF THE YEAR
VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION
YOUNG CITIZENS OF THE YEAR
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Make change.
Get paid for it.
SAYF is a standing cohort of selected young South Australians aged 16 to 24 who meet monthly, contribute to real client work, and are compensated as contractors for their expertise.
Our commitment is to making advocacy accessible. We want our cohort to reflect the full diversity of young South Australia, different backgrounds, different experiences, different pathways. You do not need to have done this before.
Our cohort is selected at the start of each year. Express your interest and we will keep you updated on with SAYF news and when applications open.
GET STARTED
Ready to work with SAYF?
Start with a free 30-minute online catch-up. No commitment required. We talk through your project together and figure out if we are the right fit.