ABC Heywire has announced the winners of the 2022 Trailblazers program.

A new generation of changemakers are busy making regional Australia an even better place.

Trailblazers is an opportunity for anyone aged between 18 to 28 who is driving positive social change projects in their regional communities and would like to see their work celebrated nationally.

Their stories will be heard as individual packages, mostly on local metro and regional stations, with written articles also published on the local digital sites.

These young people have big plans for the futures of their projects and the impact they hope they’ll each have on their corner of Australia, from knowledge sharing between farmers to prevent the loss of intergenerational wisdom to creating more career opportunities to keep young people in the regions and empowering the next generation of young engineers through coding and robotics.

Tisha Tejaya, an ABC Trailblazer from Darwin, Northern Territory, is part of the program with Cornucopia where she will be sharing the stories of migrants and former refugees living in rural NT.

“I’m elated (and humbled!) to be a 2022 Trailblazer. I’m super inspired by my fellow Trailblazers’ projects and initiatives to build up and promote their communities.”

“I’ve got a lot to learn from others and I’m keen! Most of all I’m looking forward to using this platform to share the experiences of my multicultural NT community through art and stories”, she said.

2022 Trailblazer, Jameson Harvey from the Sunshine Coast, created Red Dirt Robotics, a high-quality robotics workshop to empower, inspire and engage the next generation of young engineers. He is very excited to be part of the 2022 Trailblazers cohort and can’t wait to see what the program will bring for himself and his project.

“I can’t wait to see where the Trailblazers program will take not only Red Dirt Robotics, but also myself as a person. I’m so excited to get to know all the others involved and see their stories evolve!”

“This year’s Trailblazers’ cohort has once again shown the depth of talent that existed amongst young people living in regional Australia,” according to The Director of ABC Regional & Local, Judith Whelan.

“They are deeply connected and deeply committed to their communities. Their stories are inspiring and uplifting and are loved by our audiences. We all look forward to hearing their contributions on ABC Radio and online later in the year.”

The 2022 Trailblazers will receive a broad range of support that includes having their story told on the ABC, exclusive access to the Trailblazers Development Fund, and mentoring programs to help empower young regional leaders to share their stories and build their leadership capacity.

The Trailblazer Program receives support from the Australian Government through: The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications; The Department of Health and The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.

The full list of Trailblazers, the projects they have created are below.