Week 3: Agencies and Departure Dinner

After the Great Ocean Road, we had a free day on Sunday so we decided to make a beach day! A few of us made our way down to Brighton Beach where we got to see the very colorful Brighton Bathing Boxes. We took a bunch of pictures by the bathing boxes and the freezing water. Lunchtime came around and we were all starving so we got some good food and smoothies at a restaurant near the beach.  We also decided to go to St. Kilda Beach where we got to see some more penguins. It was a cloudy day but we made the best of it. We really took advantage of this free day because we had a really busy week ahead of us.

Monday morning started off with some really good pancakes both homemade and bought. Once we got to Batyr they handed us a variety of pamphlets and documents about different mental illnesses and different ways in which they can be prevented from happening. This agency’s main focus is to reduce the stigma around mental health by having young speakers talk about their stories to other young people in hopes of helping them seek help if they feel like they need it. Fun fact, their logo is an elephant because they want to address the elephant in the room and the name batyr was the name of an elephant who could actually talk. Afterward, we had to get on a train to go visit Maribyrnong City Council’ Phoenix Youth Hub where we got the chance to talk to two of the girls participating in one of the hub’s programs and they helped us make buttons with positive messages on them.

We visited the Bouverie Center the following day. They are a family institute and their mission is to improve relationships with family and others. We had a really unique experience at this agency because they had us partake in an actual scenario of a family struggling to stay together. Once we got to our apartment, a group of us got together and went to the pool and the sauna to relax and have a fun time.

On Wednesday, we had a long travel to our agency visit at Family Life. Everyone was exhausted this day but we pushed through and listened to everyone’s really well-done presentations. They gave us little snacks and the last two ladies who talked to us about trauma gave us little toys to play with and help us stay awake.

Finally, our final day of agency visits we went to Mind Australia where one of the researchers talked to us about how they work with people ages from 16-64 years old and the programs they have with the main focus on YPARC. Then we divided into two groups to go to two different YPARC facilities and got the opportunity to see them and ask any questions we might have had. It was our last night in Australia for this program so we had our departure dinner at an Italian restaurant, We had good conversations and said our goodbyes. This was truly an incredible and humbling experience and we are glad we came on this trip!

Ashley White and Leobeliz Perdomo Blanco

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