YOUTH ADVOCATE | RESEARCHER | SPEAKER | CONSULTANT
Holding the door open for young people.
Youth advocate, researcher, and consultant based in South Australia. I founded the SA Youth Forum to build spaces for young people in rooms where decisions get made. Across parliament, research, the WHO, classrooms across this state, I show up prepared and with a genuine love for this work.
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Image credit: Jack Fenby
AWARDED YOUNG AUS OF THE YEAR FOR SA 2025
THE STORY
I was 14 when I realised young people had to fight to be in the room.
Before I founded anything, I was a teenager who cared too much about the environment to sit still. I volunteered with conservation groups, got involved in local sustainability campaigns, and learned early that systems change slowly unless someone keeps showing up to push them. That stubbornness turned out to be useful.
I started the South Australian Youth Forum in 2021 at 17, because I couldn't find a space that felt like it held young people properly. Eight people showed up to our first meeting. No funding. No plan. Just a genuine belief that young people had things worth saying, and that the adults making decisions needed to actually hear them.
Four years on, SAYF is South Australia's largest youth-led body, supporting over 70 young people each year. Our Annual Reports have been presented to more than 50 Ministers, Commissioners, and Parliamentarians. Our work has been tabled in the SA Legislative Council and presented to the Parliament of Australia in Canberra.
But there is so much more to this story. Alongside building SAYF, I have been co-leading ReachOut Australia's first-ever national Youth Participation Framework, building genuine youth voice infrastructure inside schools like the Specialised Assistance School for Youth, advising SA Power Networks on their Vulnerable Consumers Group, and speaking on stages from WOMADelaide to the World Health Organisation. I completed a Graduate Certificate in Social Impact on scholarship in 2025, because I believe in doing this work with rigour.
My approach is relational, curious, and practical. I strive to build spaces that feel safe enough for honesty and structured enough for real change. I move between grassroots community rooms and national policy conversations because both matter, and I think they work better when they are connected.
2019
Before the picnic blankets
Growing up, I cared deeply about the environment. I volunteered with conservation programs, got involved in local campaigning, and started learning what it meant to show up for something bigger than yourself. Those early experiences shaped how I think about systems, community, and why staying in the room matters.
2021
Eight people. One idea
Founded the SA Youth Forum at 17 with eight people showing up at the first meeting. Named Young Citizen of the Year and received the Young Achiever for the SA Environment the same year. The beginning of something I didn't yet have words for.
2022
In rooms that matter
SAYF began presenting Annual Reports directly to Ministers. Received the Governor's Student Citizenship Excellence Award. Began representing young people on the SA Power Networks Community Advisory Board. Learning fast that showing up consistently is its own kind of advocacy.
2023
Research, Parliament & the National Stage
Led SAYF's research into youth awareness of coercive control for the Department of Human Services, shaping Stage 3 of the See the Signs campaign. Named Young Entrepreneur of the Year and received the Governor's Commendation Award.
2024
Growing reach & the UN
Expert Witnesses at the National Inquiry into Civics Education in Canberra. SAYF secured accreditation to the United Nations Summit of the Future, a milestone that took years of consistent work to reach. Presented at the Australian Youth Health Conference in Brisbane, the first national conference SAYF had attended. SAYF's work tabled in the SA Legislative Council. Received the Young Achiever Award for Connecting Communities.
2025
SA Young Australian of the Year
Led SAYF's All Voices Tour across five SA regions, listening alongside over 100 young people. Helped to publish SAYF's Bigger Picture Report, presented to Parliament and delivered to every Member. Began co-leading ReachOut Australia's first-ever national Youth Participation Framework. Spoke at the WHO Social Connection webinar alongside global researchers. First peer-reviewed paper published. InDaily 40 Under 40. City Mag Inspirational Female Leader. Named 2025 SA Young Australian of the Year.
2026
Individual consulting built with intention
Moving into individual consulting through my own ABN, alongside SAYF's transition into a sustainable model. Still in schools, still in roundtables, still on stages. Keynote at the National Schools Constitutional Convention Official Dinner at the National Press Club in Canberra.
2025
Young Australian of
the Year for SA
9
Keynote speeches
delivered
35+
Speaking and advisory
engagements
5
Years building the SA
Youth Forum
WHO
International panel on social
connection
WHAT I OFFER
Serious work for organisations that mean it.
All engagements are contracted directly through my ABN, independent of SAYF. If you need a facilitated group consultation with young people, scroll down. That is a different conversation and a very good one.
SPEAKING
Keynotes, panels & conference sessions
I speak about youth advocacy, civic participation, leadership, loneliness, gender equality, the environment, and what it looks like to build something real from scratch. I have spoken to audiences from 50 to over 1,000 young people, educators, policymakers, health professionals, and community leaders. From the Department for Education's Wellbeing Leaders Summit to the ACCC National Consumer Congress to the WHO. I aim to bring the youth perspective into rooms that often talk about young people.
ADVISORY
Youth voice strategy & framework development
I help organisations build youth voice infrastructure that is genuine and designed to last. I co-led ReachOut Australia's first-ever national Youth Participation Framework, which included a six-month national landscape mapping. I am building a Youth Voice Committee at the Specialised Assistance School for Youth from the ground up. I have advised SA Power Networks, the state's youth sector, and multiple government agencies on youth engagement. This is the work I find incredibly meaningful.
RESEARCH
Research partnerships & peer collaboration
I bring lived experience into research spaces and take that responsibility seriously. SAYF co-leads the Youth Loneliness Project with Flinders University, with multiple peer-reviewed papers published. I am an Associate Investigator on trauma-informed care research in primary schools. I have led research projects for the Department of Human Services and Green Adelaide. I believe the best research about young people is built with young people.
RECOGNITION
Years of work, recognised.
I am 21. I know that is the first thing people notice. These awards are not here to prove I am exceptional for my age. They are here because the work is real, the outcomes are documented. Age is not a qualification. But it is also not a reason to look past someone.
"This recognition affirms not only personal achievement, but the power of youth-led infrastructure."
2026
Listed in the Young Australian Women to Watch in International Affairs
2025
Young Australian of the Year for South Australia
2025
CityMag's Inspiring Female Leader
2025
InDaily 40 Under 40
2025
Connecting Communities Award
2024 AAAH RISING STAR FINALIST
2024 WESTPAC YOUTH CHALLENGE FINALIST
2023 YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR
2023 GOVERNOR'S COMMENDATION AWARD
2022 YOUNG CITIZEN OF THE YEAR
2021 SA ENVIRONMENT YOUNG ACHIEVER
IN THE MEDIA
Hear it directly.
A selection of interviews, speeches, and conversations across radio, video, and podcast. The work in my own words.
INTERVIEW
Meet Your Australians - 2025 SA Young Australian of the Year
AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR AWARDS
SPEECH
Amber Brock-Fabel and the South Australian Youth Forum
AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR CHILD PROTECTION
PODCAST
How is loneliness impacting young people in Australia?
EMERGING MINDS
CURRENT WORK
Ongoing, applied,
in progress.
This is some of what I am working on right now. Research, youth voice infrastructure, and community building. Projects that are each, in their own way, trying to answer the same question: what does it actually look like when young people are genuinely included?
NATIONAL FRAMEWORK CO-LEAD
ReachOut Australia
I am co-leading ReachOut Australia's first-ever national Youth Participation Framework. The project included a six-month national landscape mapping of youth participation structures across Australia and listening to young people, to staff. The framework is about building something genuine and lasting, a shared set of principles for safe, meaningful, and impactful youth engagement that holds across every part of the organisation.
YOUTH VOICE COMMITTEE CO-LEAD
Specalised Assistance School for Youth
I am helping to build a Youth Voice Committee from the ground up at the Specialised Assistance School for Youth, working alongside students and staff. This is slow, careful, relational work. It is about helping young people recognise that their perspective has value and creating real pathways for that perspective to shape the school around them. It is some of the most meaningful work I do.
PEER RESEARCHER
Flinders University
SAYF co-leads the Youth Loneliness Project with Dr Ben Lohmeyer at Flinders University, and I have been part of this work as a peer researcher and co-author. In 2025 we published our first peer-reviewed paper in Qualitative Research, with further papers currently under review. I am proud to have helped bring SAYF into this work and to have contributed to research that is reshaping how loneliness in young people is understood.
GET IN TOUCH
Let's work together.
Tell me what you are working on. I come back to you directly, no waiting, no runaround. Just an honest conversation about whether this is a good fit.