We recently completed two weeks of Instructor Courses in Sydney, Australia in collaboration with the Black Dog Institute. YAM is being implemented across multiple schools to Year 9 students in New South Wales as part of the Black Dog LifeSpan initiative. The NSW Department of Education will be in charge of delivery of YAM in public schools and YAM will be delivered to Independent and Catholic schools through the following organizations: headspace local, headspace School Support, and Relationships Australia. Together with Black Dog, we are currently collaborating with local indigenous community members including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and youth professionals and youth to assure that YAM is appropriate and adapted to the Australian context.
The two courses were made up of participants from across New South Wales (and beyond) who work with youth in a variety of capacities. The first Australian YAM Instructors range from professionals working in schools, as counselors, wellbeing advisors or teachers to those working with youth in the community as youth workers, social workers and clinicians. These diverse professional backgrounds lead to two dynamic courses filled with exchange of experiences and opinions. From YAM we had Shirley and Camilla come from New York and Vladimir and Anna from Stockholm. Below are some photos of the two groups. More to follow soon about our ongoing collaboration with Black Dog and implementation of YAM in Australia.
