First Nations young people face unique geographical, financial and cultural barriers when seeking mental health support. Services that are inclusive, free, and online have the potential to overcome these barriers and reach a large number of young people. For services to be impactful, they must continuously listen to the voices of the young individuals they intend to serve. This is the guiding principle that ReachOut followed while designing and developing its new social and emotional well-being (SEWB) initiative.
In 2022, ReachOut launched 'Meeting where you are,' an Indigenous co-designed SEWB project aimed at supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. The project led to new resources that were guided by First Nations young people via a series of consultations, including culturally sensitive workshops led by First Nations organisation Ngakkan Nyaagu (NGNY). Each workshop was designed to allow First Nations young people to share their preferred support methods, the practical things they do to support their SEWB and to provide their feedback on key elements.
In 2023, ReachOut engaged Corporate Culcha, a First Nations-owned consultancy to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of these new SEWB resources. Already these resources are proving to be effective at building resilience, fostering cultural safety and encouraging support-seeking behaviours. Evaluating our services and measuring our impact has enabled us to use data and the voices of our intended users to inform service design and delivery. Having a deeper understanding of the response to our SEWB resources is critical as it promotes continuous improvement and helps ensure this support makes a genuine, measurable difference in the lives of First Nations young people.
This project will continuously listen to the voices of young Aboriginal and Torres Islander people and take into account Indigenous ways of being, doing, and thinking. Through learning, engagement and evaluating impact, ReachOut has established internal capabilities, maximised impact and achieved a truly inclusive approach. ReachOut is now able to better understand the behaviours of young Aboriginal and Torres Islander people so that SEWB support is responsive to the changing needs of our communities in an ever-evolving world.
In this presentation, we will share key learnings from ReachOut’s experience working closely with community, including how to take an inclusive approach and engage with First Nations young people, how to integrate community learnings and engagement into your existing services to accelerate impact, and how to design and deliver a culturally-safe service that supports SEWB.