Five Ballarat Grammar students have secured $10,000 funding to run Ballarat Pride, a weekend in December featuring three events to promote LGBTQI+ acceptance.

Penny Young, Nate Sadhai, Lilla Belvridge, Emma Perrett and Ivy Clark are members of the Rainbow Alliance team that is organising the event as part of school program Crazy Ideas College.

Students participating in the program are encouraged to identify a community issue, brainstorm ideas to address the issue and are supported to bring their ideas to life.

The Rainbow Alliance team will run a trivia night, movie night and cooking at home online class throughout the Ballarat Pride weekend.

Lilla said the group realised there were not many safe spaces for queer youth in Ballarat and they wanted to be a part of creating change.

The group has been supported by Crazy Ideas College staff to develop their idea, plan the events, contact potential venues, form a budget and apply for grants.

The coronavirus pandemic and associated restrictions throughout the planning process have also proved a challenge.

Nate said the team was currently working on promoting the events and finalising venues and event plans.

Midsumma, a queer arts and culture organisation, supported the Ballarat Rainbow Alliance team with a $10,000 grant to host the events.

Penny said completing the grant application was a good learning experience, particularly developing a budget.

Ivy said the grant money would help cover the cost of venues and equipment to put on the events.

The trivia night will feature general knowledge quizzes, prizes and music from queer artists.

RELATED COVERAGE: 'The future is up for grabs': program empowers young people to make change in community

People will be invited to watch a queer film at The Regent for the film night and details of the cooking class are still being finalised.

"We are passionate about LGBTQI rights and pride in Ballarat," Lilla said.

"We are opening up Ballarat's community of LGBTQI plus youth," Nate said.

"We are all part of the community and we don't really see a lot of stuff going on in Ballarat," Penny said.

"We really wanted to bring it to life for other LGBTIQ teenagers in Ballarat who aren't aware there is a community out there."

"We hope Ballarat will become more LGBTQI friendly and more events like this will pop up," Lillla said.

"Ballarat has a huge queer population that we didn't know about until this year. We need to bring that community together more."

Nate said he knew the Ballarat Pride weekend would mean a lot to other young LGBTQI+ people in the community.

"There is a lot of homophobia and transphobia. It is really hard being by yourself and queer," he said.

"Having an open community space that is a lot more accepting would mean a lot."

Penny said the group's long-term vision was to run the event every year and expand it to a festival like setting.

"Next year hopefully we will have the ability to have a festival space with live musicians and heaps of people," she said.

"We want it to be something that if we stop doing it when we graduate other students can take over.

"We have enjoyed working together as a group. It has been nice to get together and do something we enjoy and is important to us.

"It has been great to network with people around Ballarat and make new connections with people."

Lilla said it was important to create a more accepting community.

"A lot of older people in our community grew up without acceptance," she said.

"It is important to have younger people growing up with that acceptance and support surrounding them."

The Rainbow Alliance team are one of 10 groups working to bring their ideas to life through the Crazy Ideas College program run at Ballarat Grammar and Mount Rowan Secondary College.

Crazy Ideas College is taking the student ideas into the community through the Beyond: By Ballarat and a two week walking tour.

Crazy Ideas College community development coordinator Molly Pearce said it was amazing to see students develop their skills and drive their ideas with hard work and determination.

"They are learning amazing professional skills too, emailing and sitting in meetings with professionals from the community and they all do it very naturally," she said.

"They have all grown as young people as well.

"Our mission at Crazy Ideas College is to equip, connect and unleash young people to do crazy good in the world.

"The ideas to life process and Beyond: By Ballarat really allows us to align those three elements of our mission."

Ms Pearce said the Crazy Ideas College team had worked with more than 300 young people in Ballarat and wanted to share their ideas with the broader community.

"They have created so many ideas that they hope will have a positive impact on the community and they are too good not to share," she said.

"We want to celebrate the amazing work of our social innovators."

The Rainbow Alliance project and nine other groups that are working to bring their ideas to life will be showcased on posters in businesses around Ballarat throughout the next two weeks.

Other student ideas include working to teach technology to elderly people and a letter writing program to help Grade 6 pupils make friends leading into their first year at high school amid COVID-19 restrictions.

Another team is working on a podcast creating awareness about dangerous animals and another group's focus is reducing plastic bag use by creating paper bags with vegetable seeds inserted as an incentive.

One group wants to reduce plastic waste ending up in the ocean through an education program and another team wants to improve access to mental health support at school.

The Courier will feature these stories throughout the next two weeks.

Dozens of other ideas that are not as far down the development stage will also be featured through Beyond: By Ballarat with the hope community members may be able to help support students to bring them to life.

Ms Pearce said community members and families could download the walking tour map on the Crazy Ideas College website or use the map published in Saturday's edition of The Courier.

"We hope by putting the students' ideas in the community that people will get around them and support them," she said.

A QR code on the posters found during the walking tour will link to the Crazy Ideas College Beyond website where ideas are showcased.

"Young people are the leaders of the next generation," Ms Pearce said.

"I think we really need to be supporting young people in their different initiatives and their outlook on having a positive impact on the community so they are encourage to do that throughout their lives.

"They can be empowered by understanding there is a community behind them and they can make a difference and take action in the community as well.

"The young people are excited to have their ideas represented, to be a real presence in the community, to show people the amazing work they have been doing and the really interesting ideas they have come up with."

Community members are encouraged to contact the Crazy Ideas College team if they would like to support a student idea.

The Crazy Ideas College program works with schools, organisations, businesses and government to help ensure young people play a key role in creating the future.

Ballarat students previously involved in the program have created a podcast on body image and started a letter writing program between students and people in aged care.

The program's leader is based in Ballarat, but is now engaging with young people and organisations across Australia.

Students in other areas have worked with Public Transport Victoria to create a new app that would make it easier for users to report when they are feeling unsafe.

Other students have begun a program called KFC counselling to reduce the barriers and stigma in making initial connections with mental health professionals.

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the ability to run the program in schools, but students have been resilient and adaptive, continuing group work at home and sessions via video calls.

Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.