Ashleigh Small (Bachelor of Arts, 2016 and Master of Social Work, 2019) founded her not-for-profit organisation Hello Initiative in 2019 after undertaking a student placement at UWA. Hello Initiative, or HI, seeks to improve outcomes for young people caught up in the youth justice system in WA. They do it by addressing practical gaps for young people who often come from disadvantaged families. In short, HI believes that young people should be given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

The flagship program, Mobile Support, works to address poor outcomes and the broader challenge of electronic waste by connecting young people with disused smartphone devices. Phones support young people to successfully complete their justice supervision, and can connect young people to services such as crisis accommodation, food relief and mental health services like counselling. 

So many people in our community have a phone in their sock drawer they haven’t thought about since they upgraded – we know they can hold so much power in the hands of people who need it. 

"I founded Hello Initiative in 2019 after my final year placement to provide an alternative model of support for young people involved in criminal justice in WA.

Ashleigh Small

Hello Initiative is seeking support from the UWA alumni community for donations of disused smartphone devices. HI is encouraging you to dig down into your sock drawer and find your old device that hasn’t been used in years – if you have an old smartphone that you can donate, you can drop it at campus donation points in Guild Village, the Clinical Training & Evaluation Centre (CTEC) and the Curnow Building staff room and student common room – with more donation points to be added in the future – or fill in the form at www.helloinitiative.org.au/how-to-donate to arrange a collection for your home or office! Be sure to follow the instructions and 'factory reset' your device to remove any linked iCloud and Google accounts.

Additionally, if you know a business passionate about responsible management of waste, please reach out to Ashleigh Small, CEO at [email protected] to talk about a partnership.