Youth mental health centre headspace Broken Hill is currently recruiting new members aged 16-25 for its Youth Reference Group, encouraging people in the community who want to make a difference to apply.
Being part of the Youth Reference Group would see members make meaningful decisions that have a real impact, connect with others who are passionate about youth mental health, have their voices heard on community services in the area, and organise and be a part of local youth events.
Amongst gaining experience and new skills with support, training, and reference opportunities, headspace, in understanding that what the Youth Reference Group have to say and contribute is invaluable, for the first time, is reimbursing them for their time at $18 an hour.
“Where the Youth Reference Group really comes in [is] to ensure that what we’re doing at a higher level is tailored to them, not tailored to what we think is right,” headspace Broken Hill’s Service and Community Development Officer, Larni Brymer, told the Barrier Truth.
“It’s important for us to get the youth’s perspective to ensure that we’re hitting the mark. There’s no point putting all this time and effort into something if no one’s going to listen or take it on board. At the end of the day, we want what’s best for the youth of Broken Hill. [Talking to] them is better than any data we can pull.”
Almost looking to reinvent the role the Youth Reference Group plays to the younger generation in town and in addressing the needs of Broken Hill, Ms Brymer, along with headspace Broken Hill’s Clinical Lead Therese Auton, compiled a 100-page document detailing research, data, and statistics showing the discrepancies between young people in metropolitan and regional areas.
“We identified the intersection between all of these different factors that collectively have pretty significant repercussions for our young people,” Ms Auton told us.
“Whilst this is all well and good, we’ve got this data, we’ve got the statistics, we also need to hear from our young people how it is that this information is affecting them on the ground level? Because whilst we might see on paper that there’s high rates of domestic violence, does that translate and is that what the young people want support around?
“A big part of what we want is if we can foster any passion that they may have about mental health, then we would love to do that and support them to develop skills [and] knowledge in whatever capacity we can.”
Looking for a total of 10 people to join the Youth Reference Group this year, headspace Broken Hill is seeking as much diversity as possible, identifying that the experiences and perspectives of people from even the most marginalised groups is important to hear.
“It’s really important that these people who are applying to be on our Youth Reference Group know that this is a safe, confidential space. There is no judgement. They’re not going to get in trouble. We’re not going to preach to them. It is a space where they can share everything. It’s completely confidential and it’s a non-judgmental space”, Ms Brymer said.
Ms Auton added that “there’s absolutely no right or wrong”, going on to say headspace Broken Hill “just want to hear what [their] perspective is because it’s so invaluable”.
“We’re not measuring anybody’s knowledge, not by any stretch. We just want to hear your perspective so that we can make sure that we’re hitting the mark and appealing to a broad range. No qualifications or special skills or knowledge is required whatsoever, just yourself is absolutely good enough”, she said.
For more information, email larni.brymer@flourishaustralia or apply to the Youth Reference Group via https://headspace.org.au/careers/506/.
