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Annual Report
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Contents 03 From the Chair 04 About Thinking Positive 05 Our Partners 06 Highlights 11 Financial Snapshot 13 Meet the Team 16 Acknowledgments
www.thinking-positive.org
2023
From the Chair
As I reflect upon a year of both challenges and triumphs, a year that has tested our resilience and commitment to our mission, I’m reminded of the goal of Thinking Positive which is to improve the lives of Australian Youth. In this, our fifth year, we were able to expand our reach and support a seventh organisation. Whilst the economic outlook for For-Purpose organisations has provided challenges, I am happy to see that those organisations that we have supported this yar continue to support our community. The team have spent time reviewing and revising our policies and procedures and we continue to be a well oiled machine. With a team of just two, we keep operating costs low to maximise the grant pool available for our beneficiaries. We have increased the number of Board Directors to now include Krysti-Lee Patterson who joins the organisation with a wealth of knowledge and experience and will help us achieve our aim of expanding our reach into the community.
James Dods DIRECTOR/BOARD CHAIR
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Thinking Positive A brighter future for Australian Youth is a certified health promotion charity founded with the mission of encouraging activities that enhance the mental well-being of young Australians. We collaborate with organisations that provide programs to schools, individuals, and families throughout Australia. These initiatives are designed to foster resilience and accountability in Australian youth while strengthening relationships between caregivers and young adults. Numerous such organisations are led by dedicated and compassionate individuals, often relying on volunteers and limited resources. Thanks to our Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status, we can accept donations and allocate grants to our partners, allowing them to focus on their core strengths and amplify their influence. Our partners are responding in diverse ways to address the mental health crisis faced by our young people.
Our Partners
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Highlights
We are very pleased to report that over the last 12 months The Rites of Passage Institute successfully expanded their work in schools and continued to train move facilitators nationally & internationally so this important work can continue to spread. This year saw ROPI establish a solid foundation for their all genders and girls programs. They also began a new partnership with The Man Cave which will enable them to introduce their programs into more schools around Australia. ROPI have already introduced programs in schools in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Western Australia. The year also saw over 300 people attend camps and 120 more undertake training which will enable them to design and deliver Rites of Passage programs that are tailored to their community. ROPI returned to a full program of camps and trainings in YarraKoora in northern NSW. They ran four leadership training sessions, three Making of Men camps, two Mother and Son camps, a Young Warrior camp as well as a Mother and Daughter camp. The year also saw them deliver keynote addresses and workshops around Australia to more than 5,000 people, inspiring them to ”do more good”.
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Highlights
The Radiant Woman Retreat, held in Uki in July 2022, was designed as a transformative journey for girls and women from all over the East Coast of Australia. The program aimed to facilitate their growth from girlhood to womanhood through a series of activities, including transformational rites of passage, dance, martial arts, and menstrual cycle awareness workshops. This initiative also served as a preventative youth mental health program.
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Highlights
The Royal Hood project offers a 10-week coaching and mentoring program, targeting teens involved in or experiencing cultural inequality, struggling with mental health issues, and wrestling with their place and identity in this world. This year TRH has facilitated two Royal Hood programs. There were 17 young people that journeyed through the mentoring program. They also held their first teen girls camp with 22 teens impacted and launched their first Father and Sons Camp which created opportunities for Fathers to bond with their sons and create memories together. The teen boys program saw boys participating in a ‘Family Night’ challenge, where they would cook a meal to share with their family at dinner and then organise a games night. “My son cooked dinner for the first time for the family, I’m so very proud of him.” Seb
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Highlights
Teach Us Consent is a movement founded by activist Chanel Contos lobbying for and providing holistic consent and sexuality education. Chanel launched a petition calling for more holistic and earlier consent education in Australia, as well as teachusconsent.com, a platform where people can share anonymous testimonies of sexual assault. After bringing this conversation into the mainstream media, the organisation then worked with academics and experts to help draft and comment on the proposed curriculum. Further advocacy work ensured that this was discussed and approved at the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. As a result, the curriculum spans to all children and young people between kindergarten and year 10, over 4 million young people. Teach Us Consent is currently finalising an agreement with the Australian Government over the design and implementation of digital consent resources to disperse over social media for the purpose of educating 16+. Now that consent education has been mandated in Australia, Teach Us Consent has broadened the scope of their work to provide consent education on social media, and to work with Governments on further policy and legislation updates to prevent sexual violence, with the ultimate hope that this would result in happier and safer Australians. They will also be establishing a Youth Advisory Committee to continue elevating the voices of young people in the work they do, and bridging the gap between young people and policy makers.
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Highlights
iyarn for schools is our dedicated program for school-aged children providing a seamless and efficient way to connect with students and teachers, gather feedback, monitor well being, and facilitate meaningful conversations. Using clear graphics, iyarn provides an interactive overview of the influential ‘segments’ of a student’s life. With iyarn a student can check in to observe, learn, reflect, take action and improve their way of life, their learning habits and their connection with others.
Over the course of the 2022/23 financial year through iyarn students completed over 36,000 check ins within 63 different schools. Which benefited pastoral care leaders and school teachers insight into over 252,000 social and emotional wellbeing data points.
iyarn successfully completed our research partnership with the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), which focused on strengthening our platform’s capabilities to support schools and students through regular check ins. iyarn achieved some amazing results, even though we didn’t meet our stretch target. However the 36,000 check-ins demonstrated that the more frequently a student checked in on iyarn, the less likely they were to spark a Red-Flag notification which triggered a support email to support staff. In the 12 month period iyarn saw a 50% reduction in redflag instances for those users who check in 25 times compared to those who checked in less frequently. This data tells us that young people are less likely to have red-flag instances when using iyarn frequently. "iYarn has enabled me and my friends to talk to each other about our mental health and how we are feeling. It allows us to understand each other and help out where we can." Year 11 Student
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Financial Snapshot 22/23 Profit and Loss at 30 June 2023
Balance Sheet
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Our Impact
Over 300 people attend camps and 120 more undertake training Transformative journey for girls and women Students completed over 36,000 check ins within 63 different schools. Consent education has been mandated in Australia ‘My son and I connected for the first time, in a long time’ Delivered keynote addresses and workshops around Australia to more than 5,000 people, inspiring them to ”do more good”.
Grants Distributed 300,000
Our costs
200,000
$0.04 per dollar raised
100,000
0
2019FY
2020FY
2021FY
2022FY
2023FY
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Our Team
James Dods Director/Chair
Dr Marc Cohen Director
Jack Dods Director
Krysti-Lee Patterson Director
Jacqui Knight Company Secretary
Tash Skews Finance & Donations Manager
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge all of the people who have donated to Thinking Positive and the individuals and families who have taken part in programs this year. Thanks to the generosity of the following people and organisations who have contributed to the success of Thinking Positive this year:
Troy from Trekk NR Advisory Jay and Joseph from Herbert Smith Freehills Ben from Rochdale Accounting & Advisory
Thinking Positive a Brighter Future for Australian Youth Ltd
PO Box 308, Byron Bay NSW 2481 admin@thinking-positive.org thinking-positive.org