2023 headspace highlights and heroes

As we finish up the year 2023 we would love to take a moment to appreciate and thank all the incredible people within our community we have been privileged enough to work alongside.

Thank you to all the incredible people that have taken time out of their busy lives and fundraising for the young people that access headspace Knox and Lilydale!

We particularly highlight the Run it By Kate Run4Fun somehow it was even bigger and better than last year! We love being part of the day, connecting with all the amazing people (who rise far too early to support us!). Thank you Kate, Ray and all the other amazing volunteers that come together for this fun run. 

Thank you to the legends from Croydon Library who put together an incredible book sale fundraiser for headspace Knox & Lilydale, we are so grateful for your generosity! Thank you to Grill’d Knox for hosting headspace Knox as a fundraising option for all the awesome people eating delicious burgers!

We also want to thank Holey Moley at Eastland for their incredible effort's on Funlabs Day of Fun We always have so much fun and are blown away by the amount of time you spend on turning everything green from outfits all the way to lights! We are so thankful to all the people who came out on the day to show their support for us and it certainly could not happen without all the hard work you and your team put into the day, thank you!

We also acknowledge and thank anyone we might have missed along the way!

This year headspace Knox also celebrated our 10^th Birthday!! Thank you to all the amazing people that donated to our raffle and put time and effort into creating our celebration! Shout Out to SmashSplash, Anytime Fitness, Melbourne Museum, Bounce, Bunnings, Crayola, HoMie and so MANY others- we were absolutely blown away by your generosity!!

We LOVED being able to share this special milestone with all of those in our community, but we certainly couldn’t have done it without the amazing Cire Food Truck, Little Happy Hutt Coffee Van & Melbourne Castle Hire their flexibility with our event planning is to be commended! And a big thank you to everybody who came along to party with us! It was an incredible day and we loved hearing about your experiences with us and what fun you had throughout our celebration!

We also want to highlight the amazing people within our community that acknowledge and promote headspace throughout the year at their events, and thank you for inviting us to hang out in your spaces to meet and support more young people.

We commend the amazing networks we are able to be apart of in the community- thank you Q East Alliance for creating an amazing collaborative Rainbow Ball earlier this year for all the young people in the outer eastern region, it was a great night and all the young people had an amazing time. Thank you for creating such an important safe and fun space.

A big shout out to Youth Connexions for inviting us into the Box hill space to celebrate and acknowledge important community days throughout the year. We love celebrating with you!

Thank you to Mullum Mullum for having us join their First Nations healthy pathways expo! We had such a great time and look forward to further connecting with you next year.

We also want to acknowledge all the different Schools that reached out and invited us into their spaces and gave us the opportunity to connect with their young people. We are so privileged to be able to share the importance of mental health with your students and so appreciate all your support in making these vital connections, particularly taking time away from the classroom to highlight the value of mental health, stress, self care and who we are at headspace. 

Thanks to the INCREDIBLE EACH for their continued support into community events and collaborations. We really enjoyed partnering with you at Maroondah Festival, EACH Youth Fest and Knox Festival. And also for all the support in updating headspace Knox with some FANTASTIC Renovations! We have been overwhelmed by community support and understanding while our updates were happening but we are so happy with all the changes!!  It has given our team an uplift and refreshment in how we work and connect with the young people that walk through our new doors!!

Thank you to all our partners in the consortium… Eastern Health, ysas, Anglicare, Knox City Council, Maroondah Council, Yarra Ranges Council, OELLEN, Inspiro, EMPHN, EACH and the legendary chairs

Anoushka Wooton and Kyla Stephens. These meetings are vital to our continued engagement with reaching our communities and we value all your input throughout the year!

Thank you to the Hawthorn Football Club, South East Melbourne Phoenix Club, the PPEP legends and Fiona from the Knox Skate Park we look forward to planning and connecting further in the new year ????

And finally we want to take this space to thank the phenomenal people that support us in running all our groups!

A massive congratulations to each and every one of our amazing YAF (Youth Action Force) members. We have had many fun times- the Rainbow Ball, headspace Knox 10^th Birthday and all the festivals and headspace events- we couldn't do it without each of you! And we are looking for new recruits so if you have any young people 16-25 passionate about volunteering in the community we would LOVE to hear from them!! Check out the attached flyer for more info.

A big thank you to all our volunteers at headspace! A particular shout out to the AMAZING L2P Mentors for supporting young people in learning to drive. We acknowledge and are incredibly grateful for your time and patience! Tashena thank you for organising and supporting all the young people that come through our door interested in the learning to drive L2P program!

Thanks to the awesome collaboration with Knox Youth Services! It’s always a highlight working together to create fun, free and safe spaces for young people within the LGBTQIA+ Community.

Thank you to our Sharon and Mez for bringing our super cute and fun Dogs that join us in Paws for Thoughts! We love spending time hanging out, playing with dogs and games. It’s been very sad to say goodbye to this group for a season but in the meantime we are loving headspace chillspace providing a fun, relaxing drop in space for young people to hangout with our legendary staff, enjoy some games, make new connections and meet the ADORABLE new dogs that love popping in! Thank you to Alpha Doggy PlayCare for bringing them and yourselves along! We are incredibly grateful to have you and your team join us ????

We also have an amazing group of young people that are part of the DBT group. Thank you to the absolute legends Greg, Aish, Sharon & Caity who run this group! We hear nothing but positive feedback from this incredible group!

And of course, we would love to applaud all the incredible team members at Knox and Lilydale headspace! The Intake and Brief intervention team, the headspace students, the Works and Study team, the L2P team, the doctors, the nurses all the others that spend their days coming up with new ways to help support and connect with young people!

Thanks again to all the tremendous people we have had the opportunity to connect with thought the year. We really look forward to seeing what we can do together in 2024! Have a very merry Christmas and see you in the new year ????