headspace Grafton Open Day and refurbishment of centre

headspace Grafton hosted an Open Day to celebrate the newly refurbished centre and headspace Day, with the event themed ‘Make Space.’

The celebration was well-attended by the Clarence Valley Mayor and Councillors, Health Voyage staff, young people, and community members.

The event commenced with a Welcome to Country by Uncle Ken Gordon, followed by Aboriginal dances by Garimaa Ngahri and a didgeridoo performance by young person, Lennox.

Healthy North Coast CEO, Monika Wheeler, acknowledged the achievements of headspace Grafton and the impact of recent enhancement funding. She also welcomes the Commonwealth Government’s ongoing commitment to supporting headspace services in the Grafton area.

Under the 2023 headspace Wait Time and Demand Management grants, headspace Grafton received $221,000 for the uplift of the waiting area, improvement of internal lights, external and internal branding, replacement of furniture, and rainwater run-off upgrade and sound proofing. Centre refurbishments were completed in June 2025.

In 2024, headspace Grafton funding increased from $800,000 to $1.25 million under the bilateral Agreement for National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. The Agreement supports increased funding across headspace services, enabling greater staffing stability and consistent funding.

In 2025, Healthy North Coast was successful in obtaining an additional $1.5 million dollars of funding under the Commonwealth’s Wait Time and Demand Management grants to expand services at headspace Grafton, which includes Single Session Thinking services, strengthening cultural capabilities through the Social and Emotional Wellbeing Worker roles, and upgraded IT infrastructure.

• In the past year, 451 young people have received services from this centre
• headspace Grafton has delivered 2,592 occasions of service
• Across the whole North Coast region, 3,394 young people were supported through 20,500 occasions of service across 7 headspace centres last year.