How we're driven by YOUNG PEOPLE
At batyr, young people are at the heart of everything we do. Ensuring young people and their experiences are reflected in every aspect of our organisation is core to batyr, from our board members and staff to volunteers, storytellers, and research projects. By involving young people in all these areas, we ensure that our preventative initiatives are not only relevant, but also truly resonate with those they aim to help.
Our Board
As a youth mental health organisation, it is crucial to ensure young people are involved at all levels of the organisation. Their perspectives, insights, and voices are invaluable in ensuring that our decisions genuinely reflect the needs and interests of the young people we aim to support. By including young people on our Board, we create an organisation that is truly informed by and responsive to their experiences and challenges.
Currently, batyr’s board includes 2 young people, and their contributions help us stay grounded in the realities of youth mental health, ensuring that our programs and initiatives are relevant and effective. Having young people involved in our strategic direction is not just beneficial; it's essential for the continued success and impact of our mission.
Our National Youth Advisory Group
batyr’s National Youth Advisory Group (NYAG) brings together a group of diverse and passionate young leaders who are connected to the batyr community and/or have a lived experience of mental ill-health.
The group consists of ten young people who amplify the voices of young people, including those unable to voice their needs, through contribution to the strategic direction of batyr and ongoing communication with the Board of Directors. Members can advocate for change at an individual, community, and systematic level, from initiating changes to batyr’s engagement with lived experience, to advocating for policy changes within the mental health sector and beyond.
Our Storytellers
Through our Being Herd workshops and other lived experience training, we’ve trained over 1,300 young people, equipping them with the skills and confidence to share their personal stories safely. This extensive network of more than 440 storytellers, including passionate advocates, brings authenticity and relatability to our work. These young people have collectively impacted over 400,000 young people through sharing their story through our evidence-based prevention programs across Australia. Their courage to speak openly about their mental health journeys inspires others to seek help and fosters a community of understanding and support.
The experiences and insights shared by our young storytellers are crucial in shaping our approach to mental health education. By centering our programs around their real-life experiences, we ensure that our content is not only relevant but also deeply impactful. This approach makes our educational initiatives more effective, as it resonates with the young people we aim to reach, creating a ripple effect of awareness and empathy.
Our Research
Through our research and collaborations with academic partners, we delve into the questions that matter most to young people, recognizing them as the true experts of their own experiences. We collaborate with them to interpret their data and insights, creating research outputs that genuinely reflect their perspective. We’ve surveyed over 51,000 young people through our programs, as well as gathered insights from our extensive network of storytellers, including those on the OurHerd app.
Our Being There report was created based on feedback from our community about the important role young people play supporting each other through tough times. Ultimately, our research is geared towards practical application, whether it’s refining our programs or influencing policy and practice.
Our Student Volunteers
The batyr uni executives are volunteer student representatives who are integral to the success of our University Partnerships, ensuring a student-led approach that aligns with The Australian University Mental Health Framework (published by Orygen and in which batyr was an expert contributor to). Our student executive teams plan and implement events and initiatives on campus to raise awareness around mental health and promote help seeking. Our student volunteers are absolute rock stars when it comes to spreading batyr’s mission - over the last decade through multiple university partnerships, our student volunteers have volunteered around 13,000 hours as part of their uni executive roles.
Not only are our uni executives able to develop leadership skills and confidence while undergoing their own studies, they play a massive part in advocating for mental health awareness and self-care within their own campus. They do this by having open conversations and pointing people to resources at their respective universities, externally and online. Our young volunteers also hold between 4-6 student-led events on campus per year, which are centred around creating connections, providing hope and encouraging self-care.
Our Staff
With almost 50% of our staff under the age of 30, including full-time, part-time, and casual team members, we ensure that youthful perspectives and insights are integral to our mission. Additionally, 4 out of 5 of our staff have lived experience with mental ill-health, allowing us to draw on personal experiences to connect deeply with the communities we serve. This unique combination of youth-driven energy and personal understanding makes our approach to mental health education both authentic and impactful.