B075N Armed for Life Foundations

The Situation

Nearly 45% of people will face a mental health issue in their lifetime, and this is the largest contributor to burden of disease in Australia. School dropout leaves nearly 1/5 Australian children not having completed high school, even more so in rural and regional areas. Young people indicate discrimination, financial matters and drug use as major impacts on their wellbeing, and equipping people with resilience, healthy relationship and self-esteem skills early in life is vital for effective and healthy handling of life’s stressors. 

Youth in Australia have indicated financial, mental and COVID-19 related stressors as the most impactful on their wellbeing in the past year. With 45% of Australians experiencing a mental health issue in their lifetime, we have to look at the evidence. In the past 10 years, nearly 1/5 Australians are not graduating high school, the largest burden of disease for adolescents is from suicide and self-harm, physical activity is at its lowest point in years and unemployment sits at 6.4%. Young people are not being equipped with the resilience, self-esteem and communication skills to appropriately prevent poor health outcomes before onset, something in which the Armed For Life Foundation aims to combat.

The Objective

Contribute to the equipping of vulnerable and disadvantaged youth in Western Australia to empower, build self-esteem and confidence, and up skill with valuable life skills of resilience providing hope and opportunity through:

1. Barber shop project- setting up a barber shop in high schools for training, equipping and providing school service.
2. Network with schools to create a support base with a high number of disengaged students in lower socio-economic schools
3. Community support network of presenters
4. Provide sessions to students on topics relevant to their current situation
5. Engagement and Community programs
6. School Sessions/Programs