KICKS Empowered

National cabinet met this week to set priorities for the next five year plan on violence against women and children. Men's behaviour change standards made the list. So did respectful relationships education.
There's also growing concern about how much sexual violence now involves people under 18, on both sides, and about what young boys are being fed online.
Here's the part we sit with. A young man who has no purpose, no structure and no clear sense of who he is will find an identity somewhere. If nothing good is on offer, something else fills the gap.
Giving young men something real to be part of isn't soft work. It's some of the most important prevention work there is.
If you or someone you know needs support: 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, Men's Referral Service on 1300 766 491, or Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Last week's group walked in quiet. Arms folded. Sitting as far apart as the room would let them.
By the end of Day 2 they were laughing so loudly we could hear it from the office.
One person told us they hadn't smiled in months. Hadn't realised they'd stopped.
That's the bit we'll never get tired of. Not the numbers, not the reports. Just watching someone remember what they're capable of over two half days.
To everyone who showed up last week: you did that. We only held the room. 💙

New national figures came out last week, and one of them stuck with us.
People living with a mental health condition are five times more likely to experience very high psychological distress. They are also more likely to feel lonely, and more likely to be under financial stress.
Distress rarely arrives on its own.
It usually comes with isolation, money worries, and the feeling that you are the only one struggling.
You are not.

Four women. Less than two months. One state.
That is Queensland right now, according to the ABC. Across Australia, 30 women have died this year.
We do not normally post about the news. But this one is about the people we sit with every week, and the people who sit with them at home.
If something in your house does not feel right, you are not overreacting. If someone you care about has gone quiet, ask twice. The second ask is usually the one that matters.
You do not have to have the answer. You just have to be someone they could tell.
1800RESPECT 1800 737 732
Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491
Lifeline 13 11 14
Look after each other this week. 💛

Two months on, we call every participant. 💙
Not to tick a box. To find out whether anything actually held.
Those calls are the best part of the job. People telling us about conversations they have had, goals they are still chasing, confidence that stuck around long after the room emptied.
Everybody feels good on day two. Feeling good eight weeks later is the part that counts.
To everyone who backed someone into these programs: this is what that turned into.

You can be ready on paper and still not believe you belong in the room. 💙
That belief is the thing most people are actually missing, and it is rarely what gets talked about.
Anxiety that builds long before the moment arrives. Self belief worn down by years of being told no. A nervous system that treats every new room as a threat.
None of it shifts by talking about it more. It shifts by doing something hard and finding out you can.
That is the whole reason we built this program.
1800-4-KICKS

Mental health isn't a barrier to Engagement. It's the foundation of it.

Every week we meet people who want to work. They're ready. What's in the way is the weight they've been carrying on their own for too long.

That's what the Empowered Allied Health Program is built for. Two half-days with qualified allied health practitioners, working on the things that actually matter.

Confidence. Purpose. A way forward.

You can't work on your career until you can work on yourself. 🧡