Advice that lands
The same sentence carries differently depending on who says it. Coming from someone a few years ahead rather than a generation ahead, it reads as experience instead of instruction.
How RYPEN works
Peer led,
start to finish
RYPEN is facilitated by RYLArians: young leaders who have been through Rotary's own leadership program. They are much closer in age to the participants than to the organisers, and that changes how the whole weekend lands.
Who runs the weekend
Run by RYLArians
RYLA is Rotary's leadership program for young adults. The people who come through it are the ones who then plan and run RYPEN: they design the sessions, lead the teams, run the challenges and handle the conversations across the weekend.
So the person asking a fourteen year old to step outside their comfort zone is someone who did exactly that themselves, recently, and remembers how it felt.
The talkative ones encouraged the quieter ones to talk more, and the quieter ones got more confidence to say their opinion. That was the main thing I saw.Team leader, RYPEN North 2026
The practical effect. Participants ask the questions they actually have, instead of the questions they think an adult wants to hear.
Why it works
Three things that only work peer to peer
Genuinely there
The leaders give up their own long weekend because they rate the program. Young people pick up on that straight away, and the group relaxes accordingly.
A visible next step
Participants spend three days with people not much older than them who are running the show. That is a far more convincing argument for what is possible than any talk about leadership.
Trained and prepared
Young and ready for it
The leader team comes together for a full training weekend before the camp to work through the program, rehearse the activities and prepare for whatever the weekend brings.
Every adult and leader at a RYPEN camp holds a current NSW Working with Children Check, completes a RYVID form, and signs the district's Child Safe Code of Conduct. A risk management plan is prepared and approved before every camp.
Behind the scenes
Rotarians make it possible
Rotarian volunteers are at every camp, and the program could not run without them. They handle the logistics, the catering, the transport, the paperwork and the welfare cover in the background.
That support is exactly what frees the young leaders to run every session in front of the participants, which is the whole point of the model.
Interested in leading a camp?
If you have been through RYLA and want to lead at a RYPEN camp, or your club has a member who would, email rypen@rotary9660.org.au. Get in touch early, because the screening and training steps take time.
See it for yourself
The next camp is the fastest way to understand why the model works.