A new program – Resilient Kids – has arrived to support the health and wellbeing of thousands of Northern Rivers young people aged eight to 18 years, across 75 schools, in the wake of the 2022 floods, an event which directly and indirectly had a significant impact on their mental well being.

Support services and activities under the program will be provided free of charge to youth and families involved thanks to a $10 million grant from the Australian Government through the National Emergency Management Agency.

Healthy North Coast co-designed the program with children, young people, schools, families, and service providers from across the Northern Rivers, with 6,611 children and young people responding to a survey.

Resilient Kids will be delivered in three streams:

• Stream 1: Education and skill building through school-based supports
• Stream 2: Community resilience building delivered from local hubs, with outreach to smaller communities
• Stream 3: First Nations children and young people initiatives.

The Family Centre is delivering Stream 1 which focuses on school-based programs including disaster resilience and social and emotional wellbeing education, plus parent and carer support.

Six Wellbeing Hubs, led by Social Futures, around the Northern Rivers are delivering stream 2, with outreach opportunities also available in smaller communities.

These hubs have been set up to provide services and activities including counselling services for children, young people and their families, peer-to-peer supports, group supports, and help will be provided to connect young people with other mental health and wellbeing services.

Funding will also be made available for small-scale place-based activities that build connection and wellbeing and respond to emerging needs across the region.

Collaboration with Northern Rivers Aboriginal Medical Services is also underway to prioritise the activities or services that are expected to be delivered through Stream 3.

Federal Minister for Emergency Management, Murray Watt, who has been in Lismore regularly since the flood, was present at the launch of Resilient Kids yesterday and praised the program.

“It's so important. It's just as important I think, as any bit of reconstructing of infrastructure that we undertake, to ensure that this town and this region, and particularly the region's kids are built up and have that resilience that is going to be needed in the future.”

Healthy North Coast CEO, Monika Wheeler, stated that “It is about resilience building so that we as a community have the tools to be able to face future events, whatever they might be, and come out stronger than what we are today. And that's really what Resilient Kids is all about. It's about setting in place the foundations for our children and young people to actually be supported to face whatever that future might look like.”

Daniel Pereira, 2022 Trinity College Lismore Captain got up and spoke at the launch on behalf of the region's youth.

“There's a ton of uncertainty about so many things. And to be completely honest, as a young person growing up in this world, it can be daunting and scary.” Daniel said.

“In this fast-paced world of resilience, rebuilding and taking care of physical health, mental health can often be swept under the rug, pushed aside and not addressed, which we know can only make things harder to talk about. This project is an opportunity for people to be more open about their struggles, and not just emerging mental health situations but pre existing or unaddressed issues."

"This will also be a very accessible and easy way to assist those struggling or needing to chat to someone. It's also important to recognise that mental health struggles can emerge weeks, months, or even years later from an event. So to have this project set up moving into the future will be really helpful to a lot of youth in this region.”

The staff of Social Futures are excited to begin rolling out the program. CEO, Tony Davies said that “It's about community. It's about backing each other and we all know each other and we all have connections, and the connection and strength of community is what this program is about.”

Our youth are the future of our region, and programs like Resilient Kids are the building blocks of a healthy and empowered generation.