Multicultural youth bring expertise and lived experience to mental health
Reverb 2.0 A prevention and early intervention mental health initiative, co-designed and co-delivered by multicultural young people. In this unique partnership, youth mental health expertise and lived experience are brought together in a multi-pronged, preventative mental health initiative.
Research shows that multicultural young people are under-represented in Australia’s youth mental health services. Many multicultural young people experience the mental health service system as failing to be culturally safe or relevant to their lives. As a direct response, headspace, Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation, is partnering with CMY to enhance culturally responsive practice at headspace, to ensure that staff work effectively with multicultural young people and their families.
First developed as an idea from CMY’s Metropolitan Youth Advisory Group, REVERB 2.0 embeds multicultural lived experience to address stigma, build cultural responsiveness, and increase young people’s confidence to seek support. In this unique partnership, CMY, headspace and young people bring their unique expertise in working in multicultural communities, youth mental health and lived experience together to create a lasting impact. The program is focused on two areas;
Wellbeing Workshops for Young People to be delivered in schools
Culturally Responsive Professional Development Workshops for headspace and school staff
Both areas will enable young people to co-design and co-deliver workshops that will break down barriers to young multicultural people accessing mental health services.
Reverb 2.0 officially commenced in April 2024, with 10 Youth Advocates hired to form a dynamic team of facilitators. The team is made up of a diverse range of young people with different areas of knowledge and engagement with the mental health sector. Youth Advocates will take part in a 10 part training, where they will learn facilitation skills, whilst also co-designing and co-delivering mental health workshops.
In the first training session held in June at the headspace National Melbourne office, youth advocates were invited to learn more about CMY, headspace and each other. Facilitation training encouraged the new facilitators to talk about creating a safe space, respecting each other boundaries and taking care of themselves and each other. The group also covered Leadership, Zones of Learning, Collective Care, Introduction to Facilitation and an overview to the Reverb 2.0 Program.
“The Reverb 2.0 training workshop provided a space for the Reverb 2.0 Youth Advocates and program staff to come together as a group to establish connection over their passion and commitment to addressing challenges and changes needed in the mental health system to better support the needs of multicultural young people and their communities. The Youth Advocates alongside external consultants, headspace National Youth Group members and CMY staff make up a co-design group who will focus on designing workshops for headspace staff and school students.”
Jess, Reverb 2.0 Project Lead, CMY
Reverb 2.0 continues with youth advocates and headspace and CMY facilitators currently half way through the co-design process. Youth advocates have split into two groups, one focusing on designing workshops for school students and the other for headspace practitioners. The ‘schools’ group looks to provide student friendly workshops that help break down barriers in understanding and talking about mental health, as well as accessing headspace services. The ‘headspace’ group looks at bringing their lived experience into the co-design process, creating workshops for headspace practitioners at the Ballarat, Sunshine and Dandenong headspace centres that provide insight into how to provide culturally responsive mental services.
Delivery of workshops is expected from September onwards. Learn more about Reverb 2.0 here.