Mental Health Awareness fundraiser goes on the Road
$20,000 Raised
1 in 7 children and adolescents aged 4 to 17 have recently experienced a mental health disorder in Australia.
These numbers are very concerning, I noticed a huge spike in cases during COVID from 2020 -2022. The number of children, families and our own educators were struggling. Our community have been reaching out for support, what’s more concerning are the ones that are not reaching out asking for help.
It was during this time that we engaged the help of others to organise a fundraiser for mental health, we engaged the help of the CWA who do wonderful things for the community.
Part of this journey was to start the conversations with children and adults so that they would know that help was available, and that there were people to listen. I took part in a 3-day mental health first aid course to better equip myself with the right tools and correct terminology to be able to better support someone seeking help. I gained valuable information during these sessions.
The wheels were in motion, we were having more conversations around mental health, giving out more information about mental health, sharing links and phone numbers, beyond blue were amazing, their website is full of useful information, information that we were able to share, the wording was easy to comprehend and understand for those that were already struggling. I found the big thing was trying to understand their feelings, pain and their hurt.
Loosing their jobs, not being able to pay their mortgages, not being able to put food on the table, not being able to buy medication or pay for the general bills, electricity bills, fuel, rent
All of these events added more and more stress onto our families, which then passed down onto the children who were so confused and not understanding what was happening around them.
From here we started fundraising to help raise funds, we held many raffles where we were able to raise $2000, this was great but not enough. So we put the call out to the community to see how far we could take this. This is where the real fundraising kicked in, we organised a road trip to help bring awareness to more communities, from here we took our Mental Health awareness on the road, we travelled for 2 weeks up to FNQ, bringing awareness and having conversations with communities along the way. Once we reach the tip of Australia we were able to raise another $20,000, this was such a heart warming experience along with the meaningful conversations that were had, we got to meet so many wonderful people that were eager to support our cause.