About Us
Vision
To support all young people to live their best lives.
Mission
To provide young people with the resources and support they need to make informed decisions about themselves, the life they want to lead, and the career that's going to take them there.
Values
Collaboration – we recognise that our community partners are leaders in their field. We strive to work together as the community connector for young people.
Client focussed – always putting young people first
Quality – we strive for quality, excellence and best practise in all we deliver
Empathy – we listen, understand and respond with young peoples need first
Respect – we show respect to young people, our community partners and our fellow team on all levels
Integrity – we deliver all our services and engage with the community with the highest level of integrity
Responsibility – we ensure a clear and actively managed level of care in partnership with all young people’s stakeholders
Teamwork – we recognise the strength and value of all our team and the success we achieve together
History
The BEN was created as the link between schools and industry for the purpose of vocational work placement in 1993. Originally known as Northern Beaches TRAC inc., the organisation was a team of 1-2 for many years. It was a different model with local businesses contributing a levy to assist in covering costs. Some of our founding supporting businesses included Hardware and General and Newport Arms Hotel.
In 1997, we became known as the Northern Beaches Business Education Network Inc., which was aligned to the state wide model of either being a "BEN" (Business Education Network) or a "SIP" (School Industry Partnership) or a BEP (Business Education Partnership). Working with the NSW Department of Education, we formed part of the largest education / industry partnership in Australia.
In 2005, this was then expanded into a Commonwealth Government partnership with the implementation of Career Advice Australia and then the Schools, Business and Community Partnership Brokers. In 2009/2010, Links to Learning joined our list of activities as we identified a niche in which we were able to maximise our connections with industry and our passion for vocational learning. When we expanded in footprint, we realised that the "NORTHERN BEACHES" part of the BEN was no longer applicable as we were now supporting young people from as far as Castle Hill and Asquith as well as Ryde and Lane Cove. So we became simply The BEN.
Beyond our 25th year of operation, we continued to be the responsive connection for young people and schools. Our scope diversified as the needs of young people changed.
We still maintain the importance of providing links and experiences to support better career and transition options. What has changed is the nature of the services we offer to do this. With a stronger prevalence of mental health challenges and disconnection to community, our services now rely more strongly on the alliance with local business and the community surrounding our young people to give them what they need to become successful adults.
In 2022, we made the change to align our name with the core of what we do for young people. Youth Up Front embodies the spirit in which we undertake our work each and every day – putting the young people's needs FIRST for young people with both government funded and fundraising initiatives providing support for the stepping stones into adulthood.
You are braver than you believe,
stronger than you think,
smarter than you seem,
and loved more than you know.
