Queensland Youth Week is fast approaching. This year it shall be held from 11th to 17th April. A time to reflect and a chance for us to celebrate the positive contributions our young people aged between 12 and 25 years are making to Queensland communities.
As leaders and mentors in our community, it is important that we take the time to understand the needs of our youth to help shape that pathway to the future.
We are not your average First Aid Training Company. We are passionate about mental health and well-being and deliver a range of courses that are suitable for youth and adults.
We are currently taking bookings for Youth Week but spaces are limited.
What can you do to help?
The Queensland Government have been running several events over the course of the last year to understand the challenges and to encourage our youth to speak out about topics important to them.
What’s been discussed? (from the Speak-out series)
mental health
youth engagement
consent
the environment
youth homelessness
path to Treaty for First Nations people
local issues.
We have a wonderful opportunity to connect with our youth in our training environments and often they comment they feel it’s a safe space to share and speak up about what is really happening in their world.
We feel privileged to be a trusted source and hear first-hand some of the daily life struggles.
The pubescent years can be tumultuous for some. Add in the extremely fast pace of modern life and ever-present demands of social media and it can influence our youth on a trajectory to over stimulation and overwhelm.
Further add in all the typical youth experiences of parties, introduction to alcohol and/or drugs, hormonal changes, scholastic demands and transition to work or uni and you can see how some young minds shall find this insurmountable and push them to breaking point.
At F.A.S.T. First Aid we recognised this call from our youth for support from both a mental and physical health perspective.
This experienced overwhelm is why it is incredibly important to learn the art of self-soothing and self-regulation. A skill they will learn in our Street Smart Safety Program and a skill they will be able to use throughout their life
The introduction of parties, peer group pressure and social demands (sometimes made crazier by social media – because we all know it is a perfect life on Insta!) is why we introduced “Street Smart Safety & Wellbeing Classes” and various mental health/communication programs that can be personalised to suit.
We needed to make this REAL, instead of our young participants burying their head in the sand with a ‘it will never happen to me’ approach. The training empowers our youth to respond with knowing what to do or how to improvise on the fly.
I mean who has a first aid kit at the ready at a party! We want them to learn how to bandage with what’s right there, which could be the T-shirt of their back and a couple of pens! Now we’re talking REAL life!
Youth mental health support remains a priority and we have taken great steps to trying to better understand what is really happening for our young ones, mainly due to their absolute transparency during our courses. This has allowed us to adapt our communication and selfcare training packages to suit and we seek to truly engage our audience.
Let’s hear what young people are saying about the courses:-
I wasn't sure what to expect, but the Schoolies course was excellent. The examples were really relevant to schoolies week and I feel more confident now if something does go wrong. The perfect exam day visualisation was the best.
Lachlan - Brisbane Boys College student
We are very grateful for the Mental Health Awareness and Self Care provided by FAST First Aid Training. The tools and the resources were easy to use and ones that we can implement in to every day life. We were so impressed we are going to deliver this training to our years 10 - 12 boarding students.
Matt McEwen - Brisbane Boys College
If you are reading this blog and you are a mumma like me – let me tell you, I’ve heard those words many times before:
“it will never happen to my child”
“my child wouldn’t do that!’
There is a generation gap for a reason and perhaps you aren’t as across as much of their world as you think.
If you are a:
parent,
a carer,
a teacher,
a community mentor,
a youth leader
a manager leading a team of youth
I implore you to get involved and help shape that pathway for the future of our youth.
Let’s celebrate all the wonderful things our young people contribute to our communities during Queensland Youth Week (and beyond!) and provide them the support they need to keep healthy and safe on that pathway, so they can take these learned skills with them as they transition into adulthood.
To learn more about the programs we offer, head to:
