The Orygen Global is seeking applications for its Youth Mental Health Advocacy Fellowship. The Fellowship is a six-month virtual program for 10 young people from across the globe who are passionate about youth mental health and want to create change in the mental health landscape of their country.

The fellowship has been established to build the capacity, skills and voices of young people to create positive change in mental health awareness, policy and systems reform.

Fellowship Overview

The fellowship will consist of five modes of learning:

• Education and training modules: The education modules are a core part of the fellowship and will be the platform to develop knowledge and insights for mental health advocacy. Fellows will learn nuances of developing a proposal for change, sharing lived experience of mental ill-health, and creating sustainable change. Each of the five education modules will be composed of lectures, panel discussions and/or practical workshops. These may be live or pre-recorded lectures. Each module aims to build on each other and will include a strong emphasis on fellow interaction. Education modules will cover the following topics:
  • Month 1: Defining mental ill-health, advocacy and personal development;
  • Month 2: Safety in advocacy and sharing personal mental health story;
  • Month 3: Preparing for advocacy and developing a proposal for change;
  • Month 4-5: Doing advocacy; and
  • Month 6: After advocacy, creating sustainable change.
• Mentoring: Mentoring will be used as a space for fellows to develop skills and expertise tailored to each fellow’s learning needs. These skills and expertise will help to equip the fellow with the resources and networks to enact their proposal for change. Mentoring will involve the fellow and mentor meeting monthly and is designed to be dynamic, personal and informal.
• Peer support: Peer-to-peer support is an invaluable opportunity for the fellows to provide each other with strategic and emotional support. Fellows from diverse backgrounds and geographical areas will be paired together and will meet monthly.
• Contact with leaders in global youth mental health: Beyond the impact of implementing their own proposal for change, fellows will be able to network with leaders in youth mental health from all around the world.
• Contribution: One component of the fellowship will be experiential learning, which allows fellows to engage with the established work of Orygen.

Fellowship Duration

• The fellowship is a 6-month program. Fellows should aim to devote 8-10 hours of time each month to fellowship activities. This will vary from month to month but will include a combination of educational modules and individual or group-based work.
• Between the modules the fellows will maintain contact via an online platform to network, collaborate and share information and resources. It is expected that fellows will participate regularly in these discussions.

Eligibility Criteria

• Are aged 17-30-years-old (at the time of application);
• Self-identify as having lived experience of mental ill-health personally or through family members or friends; or have a specific interest or skill in youth mental health;
• Are from anywhere in the world. The fellowship is especially keen to hear from people in low and middle- income countries;
• Applicants are able to challenge and offer suggestions for developing and implementing a variety of projects;
• Have a clearly defined problem related to youth mental health applicant wish to address, a viable advocacy idea as to how they might approach it and the background and motivation needed to go forward; and
• Applicants have permission from their parent/guardian to participate in the fellowship if they are under 18 years old.

For more information, visit Orygen Global.