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Mental Health Week 2019 announced

ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ Captains, Maddison Cockerill and Lachlan Rowlands, are proud to launch Mental Health Week 2.0.

Following the great success of the 2018 Mental Health Week, we have expanded further, with more workshops and guest speakers from all over Australia.

From the moment we were elected captains, we knew we wanted to continue and build upon the compelling and powerful project that Mental Health Week is and the messages that it spreads.

Project ROCKIT

Our major guest speaker is Lucy (Co-Founder) of Project Rockit. Project ROCKIT is Australia’s youth-driven movement against bullying, hate and prejudice. Through online and face-to-face workshops they help empower school students to challenge bullying instead of standing by watching. Lucy will be our keynote speaker and sessions will be held with our students.

As part of Project Rockit coming to Dominic, they will be running a workshop with our Year 10s called REWRITE. This workshop unpacks how we form judgements, what social labels we place on ourselves and others, and how we can display empathy to others online and offline. It’s about challenging the status quo and breaking down why we label groups or individuals. Students reflect on their own experience and explore how unchecked assumptions tend to take on a whole new meaning, particularly online.

Project Rockitt will also be running a workshop with our Year 5/6s called SYNC. This workshop introduces the opportunities and challenges of the online world with a real understanding of current social networking sites and online youth culture. Whilst the online world is a realm of endless possibility, we aim to highlight the challenges that come with this, including the rapid spread of information, miscommunications and (cyber) bullying.

Finally, they will be running a workshop with our Year 8s called LEVEL UP. In this workshop, students’ personal leadership skills are developed through a range of active and reflective challenges, providing opportunities for students to build on their strengths, identity, their own core leadership values and stand up for what they believe in.

Mental Health First Aid

Another amazing initiative this year is that all our Year 8 students will be put through their own Mental Health First Aid Course, led by Matt Gray from ITrain Australia.

All students will learn how to provide mental health first aid to their friends. The course was developed in response to research indicating that young people have a preference for sharing problems with peers.

Speak Up Stay Chatty

We are very proud to continue our partnership with Mitch and James from Speak Up and Stay ChatTY who will be back to hold sessions with our Year 9 students on how to ensure we talk about how we are feeling and know how to notice the warning signs with friends.

Little Help Project

The Year 7 students will also have 2018 College Captain Maggie Baker returning in 2019 as part of the Little HELP Project. Little HELP Project are passionate about mental health and reducing the stigma associated with accessing mental health care, improving self-care skills and building our participants confidence in supporting peers in need.

We are both extremely excited to be hosting yet another Mental Health Week here at ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ, to strengthen our community and raise awareness around the topics that arise with Mental Health.

Maddison Cockerill and Lachlan Rowlands, College Captains