The WA Youth Awards finalists have been announced, and we are very proud that two champions of youth mental health have been recognised for their achievements.
Casey Moller is our Community Engagement Officer at headspace Midland. Casey is a finalist in the Minister for Youth’s Most Outstanding Youth Worker Category, in recognition of her work raising awareness of youth mental health services, educating young people about youth mental health, and promoting healthy coping strategies and help-seeking skills, as well as challenging the stigma that surrounds mental health and related youth issues.
Casey says, “We believe that young people are the experts of youth, and their experiences. By providing young people with a platform to make a difference to the lives of their peers, we are enabling them to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to support others within communities.”
Joey Dijkstra is a member of our headspace Albany Youth Reference Group, as well as the headspace National Youth Reference Group hyNRG, and is a finalist for the ECU Community Leadership Award. They are a powerful advocate and leader amongst their peers in improving the lives of young people across the country.
Joey is passionate about improving mental health support in regional and rural areas, amplifying the voices of LGBTQIA+ and disabled young people, and making communities more inclusive and accessible to everyone.
We are so thrilled to see this recognition of the positive impacts both Casey and Joey are having on the lives of young people.
Youth Focus is also the proud sponsor of the Sector Collaboration Award, which celebrates outstanding projects in the youth sector that emerge from collaboration, skill-sharing and a cross-pollination of ideas between two or more organisations.
We wish the best of luck to Casey and Joey, and to all the finalists for the #WAYouthAwards 2024! The recipients of the awards will be named at the WA Youth Awards event on Friday, 20 September.