Youngster.co

Who we are

Australia is at an inflection point. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the entry-level job market just as young people are trying to enter it. Loneliness and social isolation are reaching epidemic levels, affecting both older Australians and young people more acutely than at any point in modern history. Meanwhile, the care and community services sector faces a critical workforce shortage, and older Australians are being left behind in an increasingly digital world.

Youngster.co was built as a direct response to these intersecting challenges.

We are an Australian-certified social enterprise operating a Work Integrated Social Enterprise (WISE) model, a proven approach the Federal Government has formally recognised as a high-value mechanism for creating meaningful employment pathways for people facing barriers to the labour market.

Our core values are connection, reciprocity, dignity, and purpose. We don't just deliver tech help; we create the conditions for genuine intergenerational relationships to flourish. Seniors share life wisdom. Young people share digital confidence and know-how. Both leave more connected to the world around them.

Youngster.co is founded and led by Tony and Finn Rothacker, a father and son duo, based in regional NSW. The organisation operates under Learning Guide Pty Ltd (ABN 99 620 347 668) trading as Youngster.co, is certified by Social Traders, and is auspiced by the Social Impact Hub Foundation (DGR1 status). It is backed by the Snow Foundation and Siddle Family Foundation, and supported through a Google Grow with Google Career Certificate Scholarship partnership.

What we do

Youngster.co delivers structured, paid one-on-one technology support sessions pairing young people (18–25) with seniors in community and retail settings, including shopping centres, community hubs, libraries, and aged care-adjacent environments across every state and territory.

But the session is the entry point, not the destination.

Our core programmes:

Public Tech Support Sessions. In-person, one-on-one digital tech-literacy support delivered by trained and vetted young people, covering smartphones, tablets, video calling, online banking, scam awareness, AI tools, and more. Each session is a paid job or volunteering opportunity for a young person.

Youngster Individual Career Pathway. After completing ten sessions, young participants earn a Google Career Certificate in IT, Data Analytics, or AI, creating a certified talent pipeline into Tech, Retail, Care and Community services.

Life Skills & Financial Literacy Programme (in development). Embedding communication, financial literacy, and employability skills into the participant journey, aligned with broader workforce readiness priorities.

Intergenerational Wisdom Exchange. A deliberate design element of every session: older Australians aren't just recipients of help, they are active contributors, sharing life experience, stories, and perspective with young people who often lack consistent adult mentorship in their lives.

Impact Measurement & Storytelling Platform. Youngster.co has developed a bespoke technology platform that captures session outcomes, documents impact, and records the human stories that sit behind the data. Designed with simplicity at its core, the platform makes it easy for partners, funders, and government stakeholders to report on outcomes in real time, turning every session into a measurable, shareable proof point. This is technology for good in practice, purpose-built to demonstrate the social value that too often goes uncounted.

Our Partnership Ecosystem

Youngster.co operates through a clear two-tier model: delivery partnerships that make the programme work on the ground, and funding and enabling partnerships that allow it to scale.

Delivery Partnerships

1. Retail Spaces and Shopping Centres

Retail environments, particularly shopping centres, are where older Australians already go. They are trusted, accessible, and neutral ground. Our retail partnerships provide physical delivery venues that remove barriers to access, embed Youngster.co within everyday community life, and give shopping centre groups a genuine community service offering that supports customer loyalty, social licence, and ESG commitments.

Current retail partners include:

• IFM Investors, one of Australia's largest infrastructure and property investors
• Stockland, national shopping centre operator with deep community investment commitments
• HMC Capital, diversified real estate and fund manager with growing retail assets
• Fawkner Property, community-focused retail property group
• Retail First, specialist retail centre management across key suburban markets

2. Local Government

Local councils are our place-based anchors. They connect us to community infrastructure, including libraries, seniors centres, community hubs, and council-run programmes, and provide the local trust and relationships that allow us to reach older residents who might otherwise never encounter digital support.

Critically, Youngster.co addresses two of the most pressing challenges facing local government today: the social isolation and digital exclusion of older residents, and the disengagement of young people from their communities. Youth engagement is a persistent and growing challenge across most local government areas; councils are actively seeking meaningful, employment-linked pathways that give young people purpose, connection, and a stake in their community. Youngster.co delivers exactly this, creating a rare programme that serves both ends of the age spectrum simultaneously and gives councils a single, evidenced investment that addresses multiple community wellbeing priorities at once.

Our bespoke impact platform makes council reporting straightforward, capturing session data, outcomes, and community stories in a format that feeds directly into council annual reports, community wellbeing strategies, and grant acquittals.

Current council partners include:

• Redland City Council, QLD, servicing the Redlands Coast and Bay Islands communities
• Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, VIC, one of Australia's highest concentrations of retirees and sea-changers
• Knox City Council, VIC, diverse suburban community with strong aged care and youth services infrastructure
• Coffs Harbour City Council, NSW, regional delivery anchoring our home-state presence

3. Support at Home Providers

The 2024 Aged Care Act reforms and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission's strengthened standards have placed registered providers under significant new obligations, particularly around demonstrating evidence of need, reablement and social connection, wellbeing, dignity, and person-centred care for every client.

Youngster.co solves this directly.

Every session generates structured, reportable evidence of social engagement, digital inclusion activity, and wellbeing interaction, giving Support at Home providers the documentation they need to demonstrate compliance with Commission recommendations around social connection, independence, and quality of life outcomes. We don't just complement what care workers do; we fill a measurable gap in the evidence trail that providers are now required to maintain.

Our bespoke platform captures this evidence automatically, session by session, client by client, making compliance reporting straightforward and turning every Youngster interaction into a documented, auditable outcome. For providers, Youngster.co is not a programme add-on; it is a compliance-aligned, outcomes-evidenced service that strengthens their regulatory position whilst genuinely improving the lives of the seniors in their care.

Current Support at Home partners include:

• The Benevolent Society, one of Australia's oldest and most respected social purpose organisations, operating nationally across aged care and community services
• Home Caring, culturally responsive in-home aged care provider with a strong CALD community focus
• Cumberland View, aged care and community services provider in western Sydney
• Aunty Grace, innovative platform connecting older Australians with care and support services

4. Employment Services and Youth-Focused Organisations

Workforce Australia, Transition to Work providers, and youth-focused organisations serve as our recruitment pipeline for young participants, channelling disengaged and disadvantaged young people into paid, purposeful work. For these partners, Youngster.co offers something rare: a pathway that simultaneously builds real-world skills, Google-certified credentials, and professional confidence, improving long-term employment outcomes well beyond the placement metric.

Our platform tracks each young person's journey, including sessions completed, certificates earned, and stories captured, providing employment services partners with the outcome evidence they need for their own reporting and performance frameworks.

Current employment and youth partners include:

• Asuria, national Workforce Australia provider and established Youngster.co delivery partner, with active co-delivery at Westfield Mt Druitt and expansion underway
• Mission Australia, one of Australia's largest community services organisations, supporting young people and families facing disadvantage
• Youth Off The Streets, specialist youth organisation supporting at-risk and homeless young people across NSW and QLD
• Launch Housing, Melbourne-based homelessness and housing support organisation with strong youth services infrastructure

Funding and Enabling Partnerships

Philanthropic Foundations

• Snow Foundation, Canberra-based foundation focused on social inclusion, education, and community connection; Snow Entrepreneurs programme alumni
• Siddle Family Foundation, values-aligned foundation supporting social enterprise and community wellbeing

Corporate and Technology Partners

• Google, Grow with Google Career Certificate Scholarship partnership, providing young Australians with certified credentials in IT, Data Analytics, and AI
• Canva, Australian tech success story and values-aligned corporate partner supporting Youngster.co's mission and capability

Government Funding and Enabling Partners

• Federal: DEWR (WISE model pilot in Western Sydney currently underway)

Key Outcomes

Reduced social isolation across generations, improved digital confidence in seniors, meaningful youth engagement and employment in local communities, paid work and Google-certified skills for young Australians, measurable empathy development via the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Support at Home provider compliance evidence aligned to Commission recommendations, and real-time impact reporting via our bespoke platform: a replicable, government-ready model for community-driven youth engagement at national scale.