Young people connect through Live4Life
News Story from Warragul and Drouin Gazette published August 27, 2024
Baw Baw Live4Life gathered at the West Gippsland Arts Centre recently for a planning meeting to discuss how the group would further implement health and wellbeing activities into schools throughout the district. Live4Life is a health promotion charity, using the Live4Life model to support rural and regional communities and their young people.
Live4 Life delivers evidence-based youth mental health education in schools and the wider community and helps create local partnerships to lead conversations about mental health. Youth Live4Life was established in 2015 to independently facilitate and govern expansion of the Live4Life youth suicide prevention and mental health education model, operating in in the Macedon Ranges since 2010. The Live4Life model is now being implemented in nine rural communities with more than 20 rural communities keen to implement the model. The all crew meeting was abuzz as change-making conversations took place throughout the day.
Earlier this year, the Live4Life crew set a theme of Connect to Protect, which also led the way for some of the discussions at the recent get together. More than 40 young people from eight secondary schools in the Baw Baw Shire make up the 2024 Live4Life Crew, with these students taking on the role as local mental health ambassadors and advocates on behalf of other young people in the region.
The all crew get together marked an important milestone in the 2024 calendar, as they discussed their Mental Health Awareness Activities for the remainder of the year as well as how they would spread the word and recruit for 2025. Kano Ravalji from Third Culture Australia also attended the planning day to speak with local students about amplifying their voice, storytelling for change and perfecting their presentation. Third Culture Australia is a youth-led not-for-profit organisation that aims to empower young people, create positive change and celebrate diversity.
Baw Baw Shire mayor Annemarie McCabe said the event helped to foster important conversations among young people and she was proud council partnered with this valuable organisation. "We are a proud supporter of Live4Life and I can't stress enough how important it is that we educate and support our young people to learn about mental health, and teach and demonstrate to them how they can support someone who is experiencing poor mental health," Cr McCabe said. To learn more about Live4 Life, visit www. livelife.org.au/our-communities/baw-baw