Last Friday, Orygen’s young people came together and were handed the keys to take over the organisation.
We took part in a range of activities, workshops and discussion panels that were organised to amplify our voice.
It was incredible to hear and learn from my peers regarding the youth mental health space. As the media intern, I was lucky enough to talk to members of Orygen’s Youth Advisory and Research Councils about where they saw both challenges and opportunities in how we communicate about mental health.
As young people, we are often heralded for our ‘fresh take’, our ‘energy’, our ‘passion’ or any other bottled aspect of our ‘youngness’. Yet my biggest takeaway from the day was that while those on each of the youth councils have these attributes in bounds, above all else, their insights, knowledge and experiences are invaluable.
It can be easy for organisations (and even young people ourselves) to focus on the experience that we don’t have or the knowledge that we are yet to gain, and I am so thankful to Orygen for providing us the platform and the confidence to lead with what we’ve got. And, as we saw last Friday, here at Orygen, we have a whole lot and it’s extremely valued!
Thank you to Jacqui for all of her work in making sure we are heard and to the YAC and YRC for reminding the rest of us what we’re worth.
Mitch, Media and Communications Intern