We are very proud to have completed our very first course and complete the process of becoming YAM Trainers. We were very lucky to have had the opportunity to train 14 new amazing Australian YAM Instructors from across the state of New South Wales in the beautiful city of Sydney. Amanda and Anna provided us with excellent…Continue readingFirst Instructor Course with our Australian YAM Trainers
Category: Blog
Post by Melinda Atkinson, YAM Instructor and Trainer. The first half of 2018 has seen YAM being implemented in numerous schools in the Illawarra Shoalhaven area of New South Wales in Australia. Located immediately south of Sydney along the east coast, the region stretches over a distance of 150 kilometres from Wollongong to Ulladulla. 19…Continue readingReport from the field: Australia
Post by: Amanda Löwemo Nordenhag, YAM Trainer and Instructor. It has been a busy few months in Sweden with YAM Instructor Courses in Katrineholm, Stockholm, Umeå and Luleå. In January we started the year with a course in Katrineholm, in the middle of Sweden. We had a wide range of participants from very different backgrounds…Continue readingA spring full of courses in Sweden
Guest blogger: Lindsay Burkinshaw, YAM Instructor and Trainer writing from Durham City, UK. At the end of April we had the opportunity as part of ‘Train the Trainer’ to train 18 new YAM instructors in Durham to extend our current team. It was a great experience, supported through the week by Vladimir. It was really…Continue readingNew Trainers in Durham
Earlier this year an article titled “Interactions between youth and mental health professionals: The Youth Aware of Mental health (YAM) program experience” was published in Plos One, a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal. As YAM Instructors this article might help you make sense of some of your experiences when engaging with youth in the classrooms. As prospective YAM Instructors this paper…Continue readingThe YAM experience in Plos One
Guest blogger: Melinda Atkinson, YAM Instructor and prospective YAM Trainer writing from Australia. Last week six YAM Instructors gathered in Sydney for a two day workshop, our first step to becoming YAM Trainers. We are very grateful to Camilla, Vlad and Will for travelling such a long way to conduct this workshop. It was amazing to…Continue readingSydney Trainer Workshop
At the end of January and beginning of February we held our second course in the UK, this time in London. This was our first course in collaboration with the Department for Education and the Anna Freud Centre. The week was filled of important discussions pertaining to how to invite youth to take center stage in…Continue readingInstructor Course: London
In early December eight YAM trainers from Sweden and the US traveled to Sydney to hold two parallel instructor courses. A total of 32 new instructors from New South Wales and other parts of the country were trained in collaboration with the Black Dog Institute. YAM in Australia is growing fast and here are some pictures…Continue reading32 new Australian YAM Instructors
Guest bloggers: Amanda Löwemo Nordanhag and Beatrice Johansson, YAM Trainers and Instructors. In mid July, 2017, the two of us participated in a two-day YAM Trainer workshop in Stockholm. We learned about the YAM programme in depth and how best to train new Instructors. We are very excited and proud to be certified YAM trainers!…Continue readingReport from the field: new YAM Trainers
Recruitment of YAM Instructors largely depends on location and context, but here are some thoughts from us on what makes a good YAM Instructor (in addition to completing the course and having lots and lots of practice in the field). Although the YAM Instructor Course prepares participants, there are several advantages to finding the right persons…Continue readingWhat makes a good YAM Instructor?