Last week the Mental Health & Wellbeing Roadshow was held, which saw a group of deadly presenters travel all over the Townsville Diocese to discuss the importance of mental health and share their stories and strategies on how to cope.

The Emerging Leaders Initiative Scheme is Townsville Catholic Education’s largest Indigenous Education Initiative, and one that continues to receive excellent outcomes. This equity model, created, designed and coordinated by an Aboriginal team currently has 590 Emerging Leader students across 11 Secondary colleges with 20 Coordinators and 144 volunteer Mentors.

As part of the Emerging Leaders Project, a Mental Health & Wellbeing Roadshow was created where a deadly group of Indigenous presenters were engaged who shared their wisdom and stories on overcoming adversity, and strategies that have assisted them on their journey. The roadshow was a direct response to feedback from staff at the schools who are reporting increased mental health needs of the 590 students.

This group of diverse and successful people in their own chosen strengths included; Naomi Wenitong, Preston Campbell, Tristan Nelliman-Adams and Patrick Mau. The event will be facilitated By Toby Adams who acted as MC for the roadshow. Toby is the Director of Leading With Strength and has over a decade of experience in developing and facilitating youth and adult learning programs

“To be involved in the mental health & wellbeing roadshow again is an absolute privilege. To travel and be welcomed into these communities and to connect and share with the students is a huge honour for us all, “said Toby.

“We have some truly inspiring Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander presenters involved this year who will be sharing their stories with the students, but also providing real tools and strategies that can be used to support these young people to stay strong, particularly when they may face challenges in their lives.”

 The Roadshow was showcased across the Townsville Diocese starting in Mount Isa on Monday 10 October and finishing in Abergowrie on Saturday 15 October. The Roadshow visited Mount Isa, Townsville, Bowen, Charters Towers and Abergowrie. It was run as a series of cultural and wellbeing workshops over three hours where students rotated between the presenters.

We hope that students received connections to Country and culture but more importantly, students got to hear relatable stories from our presenters as well as the strategies used (and continue to utilise) to overcome struggles, and to use for their mental health and resilience in an ongoing capacity.