Issue Three:
Ignite Empower Achieve
Ignite Empower Achieve is a collaboration between Uniting Local Area Coordination, the NSW Department of Education and Western Sydney University. Ignite Empower Achieve was created to address the gap Uniting Local Area Coordinators (LACs) were seeing when supporting NDIS participants with their plans and supports. The LACs recognised a critical need for increased mental health support for children and young people, which had to be easy to access and financially viable for families. The innovative result was a self-sustainable grassroots program that connects both primary and high schools in greater Western Sydney with postgraduate counselling students from Western Sydney University to provide free on-site mental health support to students. Student counsellors provide one-on-one support, as well as group sessions, focusing on social skills, emotional regulation, and play-based sessions depending on the students’ age. Spending time on the playground is also a key part of the counsellors’ role, as it helps to build rapport with the students outside of structured sessions. The program piloted at one school and has since grown to 43 primary and high schools in Western Sydney. The program has built better mental health support in schools by providing children and young people with education about mental health, a safe place to share experiences, and strategies to improve their mental health.
“This is about sustainable early intervention… it’s about supporting children early in their lives so that they’re equipped with the life skills and resilience to be able to move through a crisis.” – Bek Seymour, Local Area Coordinator and project co-founder
Ignite Empower Achieve employs an early intervention approach, delivered through the 43 participating primary and high schools, to provide free mental health support for children and young people. Through this approach, Ignite Empower Achieve establishes a foundation early in life for children and young people to learn strategies for mental health management and regulation that they may need now and into their future. Integrating the free program into schools creates an easily accessible service for young people to engage with and learn strategies before their mental health becomes critical (McGorry & Mei, 2018). Ignite Empower Achieve has been implemented and integrated specifically to improve the accessibility of mental health services for young people, as well as improve the outcomes of those young people who are diagnosed with mental health disorders (Atkins et al., 2010). Through this program, school children have freely accessed 300 additional counselling sessions. This has resulted in a 34 percent increase in student wellness scores, with students reporting reduced anxiety, loneliness and emotional distress, and with teachers reporting noticeable improvements in student engagement, classroom participation and emotional regulation.
The success of a cross-sector partnership is determined by the partners’ trust, willingness and determination to work together to achieve a common goal that might otherwise have not been possible without each other’s knowledge and resources (Pache, Fayard & Galo, 2022). This successful partnership between Uniting LAC, NSW Department of Education, and Western Sydney University is  mutually beneficial for the postgraduate student counsellors as well as the children, young people and families that Ignite Empower Achieve supports. For the children and young people, the gap in mental health support and education is met by those who are trained to provide it, to aide them in moving confidently through key stages in their growth and development. For families, knowing their children are safely accessing the support they need during school hours, on school grounds and at no cost to them, is reassuring. And for the student counsellors, this program builds their capacity for future workplaces and expands their skillset in areas including taking initiative, decision-making, supporting multiple individuals, creative thinking, resilience and adapting to change. This example of cross-sector partnership improves service design and implementation by breaking down barriers of cost, stigma and access for young people, and allows knowledge and professional practice to be shared resources to improve the program’s outcomes.
In addition to the wide-ranging benefits for students, families, partner organisations and participating schools, Ignite Empower Achieve has developed its own process of choosing counselling students which differs significantly from other placement processes. With help from the placement coordinator, a counselling student must meet specific criteria to be placed as part of this program. The counselling students complete an extra supervision session and orientation with the university in their own time, which is not required from their course. Their passion and dedication to this opportunity will set them apart and ensure only candidates with a deep understanding of how they can contribute to the program’s goals will be chosen. With this process continually being refined, and the program’s popularity increasing, there is scope and potential for more schools to adopt Ignite Empower Achieve as a free and accessible way to support the mental health and wellbeing of their students.
Evidence in practice
Early intervention creates an opportunity for treatment and support before complex mental health issues peak, which allows organisations to engage with people to educate them on strategies to minimise issues (McGorry & Mei, 2018). Implementing support and diagnoses before issues become more complex mitigates future strain on the health sector, provides education and strategies for mental health management at an early stage, and normalises conversations about mental health early in people’s lives (Sheikhan et al. 2023).
Cross sector partnerships (CSP) are a collaboration on a program or project that can enable further reach, expertise, funding, and a more comprehensive understanding for complex social problems (Le Ber & Branzei, 2010). This collaboration can be between a non-government organisations, government, not-for profits, for-profits and/or other types of organisations, and requires a basis of trust and openness for success. CSP can address complex social problems by enabling opportunities for sharing resources and innovative ideas (Pache, Fayard & Galo, 2022).
References
Atkins, M. S., Hoagwood, K. E., Kutash, K., & Seidman, E. (2010). Toward the integration of education and mental health in schools. Administration and Policy in Mental Health, 37, 40–47. Available from https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-010-0299-7
Le Ber, M.J. & Branzei, O. (2010). (Re)Forming strategic cross-sector partnerships: relational processes of social innovation. Business & Society, 49(1), 140-172. Available from https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650309345457
McGorry, P.D. & Mei, C. (2018). Early intervention in youth mental health: progress and future directions. Evidence Based Mental Health, 21(4), 182-184. Available from https://doi.org/10.1136/ebmental-2018-300060
Pache, A.-C., Fayard, A.-L. & Galo, M. (2022). How can cross-sector collaborations foster social innovation? A review. In Vaccaro, A., Ramus, T. (Eds). Social Innovation and Social Enterprises: Towards a Holistic Perspective. Issues in Business Ethics, 62, 35-62. Available from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96596-9_3
Sheikhan, N.Y., Henderson, J.L., Halsall, T., Daley, M., Brownell, S. Shah, J., Iyer, S.N., & Hawke, L.D. (2023). Stigma as a barrier to early intervention among youth seeking mental health services in Ontario, Canada: a qualitative study. BMC Health Services Research, 23(86), 1-12. Available from https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09075-6
