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15
Aug
2019
NCPHN is pleased to announce a new partnership with local organisation Desert Pea Media (DPM) after completing a tender process that invited unique, evidence-based solutions to support local Aboriginal communities.
Young Aboriginal people on the North Coast experience disproportionate levels of mental health issues, including self-harm and suicide . Cultural continuity and self-determination have been proven to be protective factors for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ social and emotional wellbeing.
Since 2002, DPM has been working with Indigenous young people across Australia using contemporary storytelling techniques and audio-visual media to facilitate important social and cultural conversations. Working collaboratively with Elders, young people, community leaders and local service providers, DPM’s Break It Down is an Aboriginal youth mental health literacy program. The program is relevant and appropriate to the needs of individuals and communities.
Break it Down provides a safe space for young people to express themselves about difficult topics like mental health, and the use of alcohol and other drugs.
Break it Down North Coast will seek to improve young Aboriginal people’s social and emotional wellbeing through a community development and engagement approach in eight communities across the region. The eight communities selected will be chosen based on high levels of need.
Through a series of workshops, participants collectively explore some of the challenges they see their communities facing around social and emotional wellbeing and, ultimately, use this to write the lyrics to a hip-hop song, record a music video and take part in short films. Throughout the work, the DPM team will work closely with mental and allied health professionals. Together the professional media content produced articulates an innovative conversation around mental health, and helps young people to ‘break down’ stigmas associated with these topics. Community roadshows and a region-wide evaluation will also be delivered as part of the project.
NCPHN’s Chief Executive, Julie Sturgess, said the funding is designed to build resilience and pride among young Aboriginal people.
“Break It Down will engage young people in a language that they are already fluent and engaged in. It’s an exciting opportunity we are pleased to support in eight North Coast communities,” she said.
The Federal Member for Cowper Patrick Conaghan said:
“I congratulate NCPHN and DPM for this great initiative. It is a sad fact that indigenous youth still remain over-represented in mental health and youth suicide. The social impacts for the greater indigenous community are felt far and wide because of this, an obvious example being the gross disparity in indigenous incarceration. This project aims at not only raising community awareness of the issues faced by Indigenous youth, but more importantly, aims to address them in a meaningful way.”
DPM’s work aims to empower the next generation by giving them a chance to own and tell their stories, and to imagine themselves into a future of their making. Participants benefit through feeling enhanced self-esteem and pride in their local culture and community.
Previous programs have regularly produced songs that have been playlisted on Triple J, and past community music videos have gone on to win Community Music Clip of the Year at the National Indigenous Music Awards in 2014, 2015 and 2018.
Toby Finlayson, DPM’s CEO, said, “We are really excited to be bringing the Break It Down program to North Coast communities. The work that is created in these projects becomes a long-term tool for communities and service providers, as a social wellbeing, cultural and educational resource.”
A short documentary showcasing the Break it Down program can be viewed here.
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