In 2013 I co-founded The Portfolio Project.
A not-for-profit program that enabled young people with a disability to pursue a career in the creative industries. The program allowed participants to work on real briefs for real clients.
In its first year the program participants – none had any experience in advertising – created several campaigns and interned in some of Sydney's best ad agencies.
Two campaigns were entered into award shows. And what do you know? We won. Twice. Up against multinational agency networks with multi-million dollar ad campaigns.
We were also gratefully awarded the NSW Youth Work Award.
Says Munro: “When we initially heard about The Portfolio Project, we were keen to get involved because it gave us such a tangible opportunity to contribute to the broader community. What we didn’t realise was the benefit we’d receive. Hayley brought a great skill-set which we unleashed on a bunch of live jobs. It’s been a privilege to have her as part of the Tongue team.”
Tim Brierley, managing partner and creative director, Grey Health Group has taken on the two ex-participants on a paid freelance basis after the organisers of The Portfolio Project contacted Brierley and submitted folios. With an exubarant “I am on board, great initiative” the pair will soon to start their careers in the creative industries.
A new campaign has been released to promote The Portfolio Project, an initiative that assists young jobseekers in Disability Services Australia’s Transition to Work program by involving them with ‘hands on’ work on new business briefs in the advertising industry.
The Portfolio Project has also launched a Spotify campaign to promote the new course.
Says Richard Kahotea, co-founder, The Portfolio Project: “The Portfolio Project have launched a new free 4 week online or in- person course to young people accessing youth or disability services “We wanted to be able to reach more young people across Australia, not just in Sydney & Melbourne.”
The Portfolio Project was awarded the NSW Youth Award when the program first started in Sydney, training young people with a disability in advertising and design skills on live briefs.
The Portfolio Project has now partnered with YouthWorx Melbourne, a registered training organisation that provides cert level courses and work experience to disadvantaged youth in multimedia and creative industries.
The Portfolio Project will go in and train young people accessing the services at YouthWorx as part of a paid work placement for the young people.
The first real project? The redesign of the YouthWorx website which the young people will be taught UX and web design skills to begin with then later the curriculum will expand to workshops and different aspects of the creative industry.
Co-founders
Richard Kahotea
Ken "Duncan" Mah