We are passionate about enabling our young people to make choices that empower them to lead more fulfilled and satisfying lives. From the beginning, we have listened to the hearts and voices of 'our’ young people and their families when designing and delivering our services.
One in five of our young people will experience some form of mental health problem during the crucial time that they are burgeoning to becoming an adult. Even mild mental illness can have a wide impact on a young person’s life and on those around them. When the worst happens, and a teenager takes their own life, those left behind have a heavy burden to bear. I know we can do better for young people with mental illness.
- Youth Mental Health Project
We understand that a one-size-fits all approach does not work. Each and every one of our clients comes with their unique set of circumstances. Their fears, pains, expectations, hopes, abilities, and disappointments. Our approach is to do whatever it takes to support them on their journey to seeing that their life is worth living.
Our services revolve around The Journey Back to Awesome Programme. It is a unique and comprehensive five-component initiative teaching coping strategies and valuable life skills to young people aged 10-24. The programme helps them to manage anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidal thinking. The strategy we have adopted is not only one of countering suicide risk factors, the programme also aims to create and strengthen the suicide protective factors around each of our clients.
With around 750 hours per month, the central point of The Journey Back to Awesome is our individualised one-on-one counselling. During the intake process clients are matched with a therapist based on a fit of personalities, gender, cultural/spiritual sensitivity, and the therapies the therapist is trained in.
At a stage where it is appropriate for them, clients are then offered and encouraged to accept additional support through mentoring, life skills and wellness coaching, peer support groups, and family support opportunities. The offerings in all aspects of the programme have been significantly developed in response to client needs and feedback, and to further align with findings regarding youth suicide risks, suicide protection, and mental health.
Key change needed:
Moving from a largely mental health service-based response, to enabling communities to nurture and support their whānau and families and community members when they are experiencing suicidal distress.
- As Identified by Every Life Matters/ He Tapu te Oranga o ia Tangata Suicide Prevention Strategy 2019–2029 and Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2019–2024 for Aotearoa New Zealand
An example of life skills development for clients is our charity shop in Manly. This shop is organised and run by volunteers, and gives clients the opportunity for work experience and business skills development. It offers a safe environment to increase social confidence, contributes a small but steady income stream for the Trust, and raises the YIT profile in the community.
At times, food parcels and pre-cooked meals (all donated or prepared by the community) are given to young people in need. Practical assistance is offered in gaining professional skills, dealing with government agencies, schools and employers on an as-need-arises basis. The active involvement from local community groups and individuals in a variety of supporting activities makes the programme quite unique.
The focus on creating a touchstone with the immediate community via their businesses/services and the vulnerable youth has increased awareness and understanding of the challenges young people and families are facing. Increasingly, individuals and groups in the local community are inspired to become involved, often changing their own attitudes to young people and the issues they are struggling with.
That our services are aligned with our mission, and that they demonstrate proactive and effective support helping our young people to get back into a life worth living has been confirmed by Dr. Andrea Polzer-Debruyne (PhD, CTA-P). Early 2019 and again in December 2021, she conducted a thorough programme evaluation and concluded the following.
The Journey Back to Awesome in its current form has been found to be a personalised, holistic and highly effective programme that serves its participants to a remarkably high degree. The success of the programme is due to two main factors: its personalised, iterative, community involving wrap-around nature and the incredibly high level of personal engagement, care and professionalism of all those involved in delivering it. Together those two factors make the programme stand out from others that may offer similar programme components.
