Youth in Transition Charitable Trust

Youth in Transition Charitable Trust received a grant of $10,000 from the Rodney/North Shore COGS committee for their youth suicide prevention programme “Journey Back to Awesome”.

The “Journey Back to Awesome” programme is a unique and extraordinarily successful suicide intervention programme for young people aged between 10 -24 years who have attempted or expressed serious intent of taking their own life. 

The programme provides a transition pathway for these high-risk young people by incorporating counselling, mentoring, peer-support, family support and lifestyle education.  The expected benefit is significantly reducing the number of youth suicides on the Hibiscus Coast and North Shore. 

Since receiving the COGS grant, the Trust have concentrated solely on getting their young people through the additional challenges caused by lockdowns. Their clients have struggled to cope with a decline in mental health, triggered by feelings of uncertainty, loneliness, and isolation, and, for some, being stuck in unsafe home environments.

Increased incidences of self-harm, anxiety and eating disorders have swept through the community. The clinical team and volunteers have met the challenges and adjusted to a new way of working.  They stated, “all our young clients got through this extraordinary period of uncertainty and we lost no-one to suicide.  This is a remarkable success and testimony to the effectiveness of our programme”.  

At 31 October 2021 Youth in Transition had 170 young clients actively enrolled and supported through their “Journey Back to Awesome” programme, abd 165 not actively participating but able to reach out to the programme if they require support.