Make a donation

The first time Nathan Akoka was in a drug and alcohol withdrawal unit, he wasn’t a worker. He was a client. When he was 13 years old, he moved to Melbourne following some big life changes. He was feeling lost, so he started using substances to help cope. Eventually, he…

When I was 15, I drank so much that I fell unconscious on my bed. My dad rang me and I wasn’t able to speak to him, and he freaked out. We had to go to the hospital and the nurses were asking me questions like ‘do you drink a…

Lake Majstorovic is passionate about improving the lives of LGBTIQA+ young people. Growing up as a non-binary person in the Frankston area, they experienced first-hand what it’s like when mental health services aren’t designed for you. “There is a real dearth of understanding, and a kind of fear and hesitation…

When Marcus first learned about intersectionality, it was a light bulb moment. “It’s a theory from black feminists who are talking about a subjective experience they’ve had… about what it means to be a black woman, to be queer,” they say. For Marcus, an African American queer person with lived…

Support for young people often takes a one-size-fits-all approach. Youth worker Cihan Tohumcuer has seen how this cookie-cutter model has left Victoria’s Muslim community behind. Cihan is Muslim himself and grew up in Melbourne’s north watching many of his brothers and cousins using and dealing drugs. “Back…

Dave Pettingill has felt like a youth worker since he was three. He grew up with many foster brothers and sisters, and eventually, his parents used the family home as crisis accommodation. He loved meeting so many different kids. “From an early age I could see that…

There’s an old saying in social work: if you want to help people, you have to meet them where they are. For Akash Nadar, that meant heading over to his parents’ house in the back of a police van.*

The year was 2019, and Akash’s home life, which…

They call it the Experience Paradox: to get a job, you need experience; but to get experience, you need a job. Larry De’Corso understands the problem well. After completing their Master of Social Work, Larry spent months looking for work in their chosen field of youth mental health.…