Fellowship program Content
PROGRAM CONTENT
The Fellowship program builds the capacity of young people to champion and scale change through developing their skills to contribute to community and health services, community development and policy making. It creates a platform for knowledge-exchange and connects Fellows with leading global mental health organisations and networks, academics, and industry leaders. The network of mental health youth leaders provides peer support, where participants work together to lead projects in their respective communities and amplify processes and community-building efforts across the globe.
The Fellowship functions through six modes of learning based on global evaluations. These six modes are:
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Education and training workshops
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Peer mentoring
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Expert mentoring
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Contribution to advocacy efforts
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Contact with leaders in global youth mental health
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In-person forum
Education and training modules: The education modules are a core part of the Fellowship and will be the platform to develop knowledge and insights into mental ill-health, advocacy, sharing mental health lived -experience, developing a proposal for change and creating sustainable change. Each of the five education modules can comprise lectures, panel discussions and/or practical workshops. These may be live or pre-recorded lectures. Each module aims to build on the other and will include a strong emphasis on Fellow interaction.
The Fellowship curriculum includes five core educational components:
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Defining mental health, advocacy and personal development
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Safety in advocacy and sharing your personal mental health story
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Preparing for advocacy and developing a proposal for change
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Doing advocacy
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After advocacy: Creating sustainable change and looking after yourself
Peer mentoring: Peer-to-peer support is an invaluable opportunity for the Fellows to provide each other with strategic and emotional support. Fellows from diverse backgrounds and geographical areas will be paired together and will meet on a monthly basis.
Expert mentoring: Mentoring will be used as a space for Fellows to develop skills and expertise tailored to each Fellow’s learning needs. These skills and expertise will help to equip the Fellow with the resources and networks to enact their proposal for change. Mentoring will involve the Fellow and mentor meeting on a monthly basis and is designed to be informal.
Contribution: Fellows of the program will be supported to develop their own idea to improve mental health in their community. Additionally, one component of the Fellowship will include an experiential learning component that engages Fellows in a collaborative advocacy project.
Contact with world mental health leaders: Above and beyond the impact of implementing their own proposal for change, Fellows will be able to interact with leaders in youth mental health from all around the world.
In-person forum: The final element of the Fellowship is an in-person forum for all of the Fellows, where they can come together to participate in an immersive intensive advocacy training, which will provide them with the opportunity to network with advocates in the region.
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