A Youth Wellbeing
Community Activation
Project
Welcome to
We Empower Us
a Youth Wellbeing
Community Activation Project
Youth Wellbeing & Youth Voice are the very heart of this project.
Youth focus groups will identify the collective priority(s) for youth wellbeing at their school - for the future they want to live in.
A Parents focus group (those who are caring for their young people who are experiencing moderate to severe mental impairments) will identify their collective priority(s) for wellbeing.
Once we determine the collective wellbeing priority, many key and diverse community stakeholders will come together to wrap around this priority in a Community Activation Summit designed to bring the priority to life.
The One-Day Summit will generate a strength-based and future-focused collective inspired for cohesive action.
YOUTH WELLBEING = EVERYONE'S WELLBEING
When a community comes together to generate positive designs for their wellbeing through this Appreciative Inquiry approach, it builds an inspired and connected collective that has the capacity to create sustainable influence and change.
Focus Groups - Empowered Voices
Youth - Intermediate, High School, Young Adult
Each focus group will include students from local schools, and be connected with the larger youth voice in their school. The young adult group will be connected with their training institution, employer, or social network. Collectively, the group will determine their top priorities for their wellbeing.
Parent
This group will include parents who are caring for a teen(s) who is/are struggling, and they are navigating systems to try and find more support. These parents are motivated, committed, and have capacity to join this collective and Summit to help create positive solutions.
Value of Connected Communities
Isolation and loneliness are the key contributors to mental illness, low quality of life, and higher mortality rates. When people experience trauma or sustained stress, without meaningful social support, they are 75% more likely to develop anxiety and depression.
Internationally, moderate to severe anxiety disorders are one of the most common health problems. In NZ,
1 in 4 people will experience this in their lifetime, or 14% of people will experience this a year. That means more than 700,000 households in NZ have someone experiencing anxiety, and that number increases when we include the energy required from the people who love, care, and work with them - family members, school staff, and workplaces.
Why Now? Why Focus on Youth?
"In NZ, between 2007 and 2016, “the total number of annual antidepressant prescriptions dispensed to children and young people increased by 68%...and the rate of prescribing increased by 44%” (Bowden et al., 2019, p. 55)."
There is a biopsychosocial approach to mental illness in NZ, of which we mainly concentrate on the individualised approaches of bio (medication) and psyche (talk therapy). They have efficacy rates of 33% and 58% respectively. Although these approaches are limited, and we have an under-resourced mental health system, there is deep gratitude for the support they offer.
AND there is more that we can do. There is more that we have the power to do together.
What we seem to be missing is the valuable social approach.
We Empower Us is a project that intends to generate that missing link.
Want to use your voice to make a difference?
Schools: We are looking for students who are keen to make a positive difference and form a Focus Group. They will need a Principal and/or Teacher who is keen to support them and be part of a community effort.
Young Adults and Parents: If you are keen to make things better, and have motivation and capacity to be part of a focus group and community collaboration, we are keen to meet you.
