Drumroll, please… this quarter we have lots of very exciting news to share!
In quarter 3, we reached a total of 11,613 young people, delivering 154 programs and 15 uni events! This is the highest number of programs delivered per quarter this year.
Highlights in Victoria included visiting Macedon for a Live4Life camp program and Operation New Start working with disengaged youth.
The New South Wales team was excited to deliver a program as part of the Australian Schools Rugby Championships! This was the first year the community could come together since Covid, and it was also the first time young women were included in the championship. The team reached 235 students through this program alone. After delivering programs at Cobar High School, the team helped at the RUOK? Day brunch, organised by the Cobar High School student chapter students!
All smiles from Eliza and Sarah during the Hunter Tour last term in Chatham after they had finished delivering an awesome program to Newcastle Grammar!
Our uni teams were busy bees out on the ground running events and connecting with students! Check out a few highlights from the quarter below.
Eliza handing out flowers at the 10th Festival of Now in Adelaide run by the Mental Health Coalition of SA.
The batyr@UoN executive team at ‘batyr homes and gardens’ at the University of Newcastle, planting the seeds for positive mental health with flower pot painting!
On RUOK? Day, our uni executive teams ran a MASSIVE seven programs and five events at multiple campuses across Australia to start positive mental health conversations with students.
Here’s what some of our students had to say!
batyr listed on Schools Mental Health Menu!
We are delighted to announce that batyr has been successfully appointed to the Victoria Department of Education’s Schools Mental Health Menu. Menu programs have been independently assessed for proven impact and how well they support student mental health and wellbeing, ensuring the list includes only evidence-based supports and programs.
The Menu provides schools with a minimum of $25,000 to purchase programs and initiatives across three tiers of intervention. Through this opportunity, we hope to engage with schools, and spread our reach across metro and regional Victoria. We can’t wait to have more positive conversations about mental health and be able to support even more young people!
To read more about what this means click here.
batyr plays key role in the Commonwealth Government’s National Suicide Prevention Leadership Program
We will receive funding support from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing as part of the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Program. batyr’s ‘Project Thrive On’, a three year project, will deliver evidence-based, peer-to-peer mental health and suicide prevention activities to high school and tertiary education students through 170 student programs.
batyr’s polished brand wins silver at the Better Future Sydney Design Awards 2022
We commissioned creative agency Designer Rice to give the batyr brand a refresh and create a flexible yet consistent identity system. After undergoing a discovery session with the Designer Rice team and consulting with young people through qualitative and quantitative research, we are proud to reveal our bold visual identity.
We are also delighted to announce that the project won Silver at the Sydney Design Awards in the Better Future Equity and Inclusion Category.
Read more here.
batyr’s Head of Global Impact Stephanie Vasiliou co-authors ‘Financing Child, Adolescent and Young People’s Mental Health‘
As Co-Chair of the Child and Youth Working Group for the Global Mental Health Action Network, batyr’s Head of Global Impact Stephanie Vasiliou co-authored this important report on why investment into child and youth mental health is critical. batyr is being represented on the global stage, sharing learnings and joining forces with others to strengthen our voice around what’s needed to enable preventative measures and create long-lasting positive mental health outcomes.
Ian Thorpe joins the panel for our batyr@work program at Optus
In September we ran a batyr@work program at Optus to empower staff with the resources and skills to lead mentally healthy and thriving lives and be positive mental health advocates in their workplace. The event included a panel discussion with Ian Thorpe who shared some of his own mental health journey. 200 people attended in person and we had an unbelievable 800 attendees online, making it the most-attended staff event that Optus has hosted in many years!
Ian Thorpe with the batyr team at Optus after delivering a program to over 1,000 members of staff!
OurHerd@Work pilot demonstrates the impact of storytelling in reducing stigma and increasing help-seeking in the workplace
We successfully completed the OurHerd@Work pilot for the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA), reaching over 615 workplace program participants and collecting 98 survey responses to measure the impact of the project. The purpose of the project was to demonstrate the impact of storytelling in shifting mental health stigma and improving help-seeking intentions in the workplace.
Key findings include:
- 83% of participants felt able to support a friend experiencing mental ill-health;
- 67% felt okay about themselves going through a hard time and;
- 68% would feel confident to have a conversation with a colleague about it;
- 86% of workplace participants believed that by sharing their experience of tough times, they can have a positive impact on others.
Advocating for young people through meeting with Government stakeholders
Over the past few months, we have been busy engaging and advocating for youth mental health and young people with key Government stakeholders. Throughout Q3, we met with the Mental Health Adviser to the Federal Minister for Health, the Hon. Mark Butler MP, we hosted the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, the Hon. Emma McBride MP at our Sydney office and met with the Federal Shadow Minister for Health and Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.
Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, the Hon. Emma McBride MP pays a visit to our office to learn more about our work!
A shout out to some special people in our community going the extra mile for batyr!
- The Zoop Network’s 9for9 challenge – 103 people took part in this chilly challenge and raised an incredible $73,650 by taking a dip in the cold water every day in August for 9 minutes; for the 9 people we lose to suicide every day in Australia.
- Civic2Surf – we had 30 runners take part running 360km from Canberra to Sydney raising a total of $7,031! Covering a 14km running course, we had 162 runners participate in City2surf who raised $21,265!
- Blackmores Running Festival – The wonderful ‘Running for Tom’ team raised an incredible $6,329 at the Blackmores Running Festival.
- Breathwork coach Rory Warnock Runs For The Herd – Rory Warnock took on a 250km ultramarathon through the Atacama Desert over 6 days, raising $2,211 for batyr!
A special mention to some of our partners for their support this quarter
- Calibre – Our ongoing partnership with Calibre remains stronger than ever, with Calibre generously giving over $200,000 in financial support to batyr this year, as well as office space across the country. batyr has had the privilege of running a number of corporate mental health and parent forum programs for Calibre, as well as collaborating on exciting events and sponsorship opportunities as partners.
- nib Group – We have recently announced our partnership with nib Group, who have generously committed $500,000 of funding across 2 years to support the development and delivery of the OurHerd app!
- Liptember – The Liptember Foundation ran their annual campaign Liptember throughout September! This is the 6th year they’ve supported batyr through their campaign highlighting the need for more research into women’s mental health. We are grateful for this partnership and the incredible $830,000 they’ve donated to batyr since 2017!