2026 VIC Young Australian of the Year - Abraham Kuol
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2026 VIC Young Australian of the Year - Abraham Kuol
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I work in a pretty challenging field
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where you’re seeing constantly the the
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negative attention that youth crime
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draws, the perception that people have
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about African young people, the
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stereotypes that exist. And then you see
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that in how young people present and how
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young people show up. It changes the way
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that they look at their future. So my
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research looks at risk and protective
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factors for African youth crime here in
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Victoria. How I do that is by making
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sure that we identify the challenges
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that African Australian young people are
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facing, looking at pathways or strengths
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that can help them move away from
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offending. The goal is that we can use
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the research and and the data to drive
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meaningful outcomes at a grassroots
0:47
level. The things that I’m trying to do
0:49
to put that into practice is helping
0:50
young people connect to Australian
0:53
society. mentoring uh kids from my own
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community one-on-one, uh running uh
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sports programs, building community
1:00
programs as well, and just making sure
1:03
that I’m showing up for uh the people in
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my community, the people in my life. I
1:08
co-founded a soccer and basketball club
1:12
for at risk uh African-Australian young
1:14
people. The reason why I use sports-based
1:17
mentoring programs is it has the the
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potential to unite, the potential to
1:20
remove barriers that exist between
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people. feel like there’s so much value
1:24
in shared experience in places like
1:27
football clubs and sports clubs. You can
1:29
build shared experiences. For me, what
1:32
I’m most motivated about is helping
1:34
young people from my own community see
1:36
that here in Australia, they can build a
1:37
future for themselves. Sometimes you can
1:39
see a really bright young person who is
1:43
so capable but doesn’t believe that for
1:45
themselves. But when given a reason to
1:48
hope, when given an alternative, they
1:51
can turn their life around.
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[Music]
Updated 9 January 2026
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