Every young person deserves someone in their corner.

Leading Youth Forward pairs at risk Perth teenagers with volunteer mentors who show up for them.

Our teens are in school years 7 to 10. Their circumstances have denied them the experiences and role models most kids take for granted, at exactly the age when the decisions they make start to shape the rest of their lives.

LYF steps into that gap.

Alongside one-to-one mentor pairings, we run a year-round program of Big Days Out, weekend camps and small group activities. The focus is on fun and genuine challenge in equal measure, because personal development lands better when it does not feel like a lecture. 

In 2025:

50 teens supported, 30% identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
91 volunteer mentors contributing 8,235 hours
89% of mentoring pairs re-engaged the following year

LYF has been running since 2011 and is staffed entirely by volunteers. Everything that we raise goes straight into program delivery.

What your donation does

• $20 - Feeds a teen for a whole event day
  Morning tea and lunch at an LYF event. Many of our teens arrive without having had breakfast.
• $40 - A Development Journal for a full year
  The journal a teen carries into every event across the year.
• $120 - Sends a teen and their mentor to a Big Day Out
  A full day together, building the kind of trust that doesn't happen in an hour.
• $1,000 - Sends a pair to our two-night camp
  Two nights away — the experience our teens still talk about years later.