Boarding & Wellbeing Update

On the first weekend of Term 3, 25 students, staff and identified family members met on Larrakia Country to join the first Fellas camp in MITS history, The Fellas Connection Camp.

This was an opportunity for the students, staff and family members to connect and heal on Country together, then be able to draw strength from their connections to support themselves and each while away from home and Country.

This was facilitated by Sam Weily (Psychologist), Balance Choice and First Nations led program One Percent.

Tom Mitchell

Assistant Manager Senior Fellas House

Wellbeing - the importance of partnerships.

While we strive to put wellbeing at the forefront of everything we do here at MITS, we also want to make sure that our students know how to access wellbeing support outside of their time with us. While we want them to start to build their own wellbeing 'toolkits' - understanding what they need to improve the way they're feeling, or manage difficult moments - we also want to encourage help-seeking outside of our organisation. Over the last 18 months, we've worked hard to form a great relationship with our closest Headspace centres in Hawthorn and Collingwood. 

Headspace support our students in a number of ways. Some of our students attend one-on-one counselling at the centres, accessing psycho-social support regularly or for one-off appointments when they need them. The Community Outreach Workers have visited our Year 7 & 8 classrooms a number of times, to explain what they do and run fun wellbeing activities with our students. Late last term, and early this term, we were also the beneficiaries of three Headspace national grants for First Nations students. This meant we could co-facilitate three amazing activities for our students that promoted wellbeing. Our Years 7 & 8 girls participated in a super fun hip hop workshop with Indigenous Outreach Projects, our Year 8s were invited on a cultural walk, where we learned of how the Wurundjeri people have used the areas around the Yarra River (Birrarung) for generations, and we recently had our senior girls participate in an art workshop with Tiwi artist (and good friend of MITS), Russellina Puruntatameri.

The Headspace brand aligns really nicely with what we do at MITS, as it's a mental health support service that works directly with teenagers. Headspace is also a national organisation, meaning that when our students' time with MITS is over, they will still have access to this important service, if and when they need it. 

Emma Puddy

Mental Health Practitioner