b'WESTERN EDGE YOUTH ARTSJancey Fesolai, Penny Harpham, Yaw Dadzie, Tariro Mavondo, Sina Brown, Western Edge Youth Arts (Photo: Meredith OShea)The excitement radiates out of Western Edges have ways of making school cool, she laughs) and Penny Harpham. workshops, community programs and performances to development paths for aspiring performing arts Melbournes west is one of the most multicultural placesprofessionals. Participants are invited into the community in the country, she says. It has the fastest growingprograms from around 14 years old. rate of young people in the country, so for us its a really exciting place to be as an arts organisation. SomewhereThe most striking aspect of the company is its passion where we can really understand and hear the stories fromand commitment to letting the young participants have a young people from all sorts of different intersections;genuine voice in the direction and priorities of the work. cultural, economic, sexual, gender-diverse. We covera really broad range of young people coming into Everything we do is co-designed, Penny said. She holds our rooms. workshops to ask the young artists what they want, about their ambitions, how WEYA can help, what could be done Established in 2005, Western Edge Youth Arts (or WEYA)better? Its not just lip service. provides a place for the melting pot of western Melbourne young people to come together to create art, expressFrom all of that, we know what sort of grants to apply for themselves and have a genuine voice. The not for profitor what organisations to align ourselves with. It helps keep organisations work ranges from school programs (Weus really focused not on what the adults in the company 10NEWSBOYS FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 2021'