World Mental Health Day 2025
Friday 10 October is World Mental Health Day, a day established to raise awareness around mental health and further efforts in supporting those encountering mental health issues.
This year’s theme is: “Connect with your community.”
Reverb 2.0 is CMY’s prevention and early intervention mental health initiative, co-designed and co-delivered by multicultural young people, in collaboration with CMY and headspace National (headspace).
Young people lead the program with their own lived experience to address stigma and increase young people’s confidence to find support.
Kevin and Julia are two Youth Advocates with Reverb 2.0 who have shared their own reflections and experiences for World Mental Health Day and its theme.
Kevin:
Community is a place that makes space for you to share yourself; your life experience, passions, interests, personality, culture, the messy side of you, the thriving side of you, IT’S SO FREAKIN’ AMAZING. Heck, it’s a beautiful amalgamation of individuals who want to bond through shared values. To my mental health, community recognises that I simply can be who I am meant to be without judgement, helping me thrive and put my best foot forward in everything I do.
Connecting is ingrained in my work, personal, and social life. As a Lived Experience Worker and Youth Worker, I am blessed to be able to connect with different communities as a participant AND a professional. This rapport and connection building always amazes me; sharing experiences to empower others really helps validate and recognise the parts of my identity that I used to be so ashamed of. The more I share, the more I feel connected with others and myself.
Continue letting young people be the torchbearers in advocating for their communities. The world is in a unique position where their voice can be heard in almost any given space, and if they don’t have that space, they can create it! Any organisation should ask, not assume, what young people need. Champion young community voices, don’t treat them as a convenience.
Julia:
Six weeks ago, I became an Australian citizen. It was a moment I had imagined since arriving in this country as an awkward and intimidated 15-year-old girl. I remember feeling overwhelmed by how foreign everything was: from the way people spoke, to figuring out how buses and trains and trams worked. Becoming a citizen made me reflect on the 10-year-long journey I’ve undertaken to feel like I belong here, and on what that really means.
To me, community isn’t just about nationality or the people in your neighbourhood. It’s about who and where you feel safe, seen and valued. I’ve found that having a sense of belonging is important for my mental wellbeing. When I am connected to community, I feel grounded; like I know who I am and what matters to me.
I remember my first experience volunteering at my school canteen – a small role, but one that made me feel like I was an important part of my school community. After graduating, I continued volunteering with various organisations that I felt reflected my personal values, including CMY. It was through these volunteering experiences that my concept of community was developed. I began to understand that community is created through shared experiences, values and mutual care.
As public spaces become more commercialised and the cost-of-living increases, where are young people allowed to exist and socialise without expectation? The young people of today are resilient and resourceful and have found community online. But that isn’t enough. We also need what sociologists call “third spaces” – places outside of home, school or work where young people can socialise, participate in the community and show up as their authentic selves. We need more real-life spaces where young people can regularly gather, feel like they belong and build relationships with others.
The importance of feeling connected to community shouldn’t be understated. But how can we create spaces for community for young people? Organisations and local governments can play a huge role by co-designing such spaces with young people and recognising that sense of belonging is essential to our mental health.
Fifty-seven years ago, Barbra Streisand sang: “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world”; and as a 25-year-old in 2025, I think those words ring truer than ever. Connection to community shouldn’t be considered a luxury. Instead, let’s start viewing community as a necessity – one that strengthens our collective wellbeing and reminds us that caring for one another is what makes us human.
Reverb 2.0 expressions of interest are now open nationwide. Send in an expression of interest for Reverb 2.0 to visit your school here.