PVF Youth

PVF Youth Promoting positive mental health for young adults 💆‍♂️
An initiative of the Positive Vibes Foundation
https://linktr.ee/pvfyouth

Most young people aren't struggling because they don't want to talk about mental health. They're struggling because no o...
17/06/2026

Most young people aren't struggling because they don't want to talk about mental health. They're struggling because no one has ever given them a real space to do it.

Not a worksheet. Not a poster on the wall. An actual conversation, with real professionals, in a room where it's safe to ask the questions they've been carrying around for months.

That's what the Young Healthy Minds Forum creates. And what you're looking at in this photo is exactly that. Students speaking up, asking hard questions, and saying things out loud that most adults assume teenagers aren't ready to talk about.

They are ready. They've always been ready. They just needed the right room.

Follow to see more from the day.

16/06/2026

Sometimes the most powerful thing you can hear is someone else's story.

At the Young Healthy Minds Forum, students heard from Matt Caruana, who spoke openly about reaching one of the darkest points a person can get to, and what it took to come back from it.

For this student, it wasn't just interesting. It was hope. Seeing someone go to that depth and find their way through it changed something about how they understood mental health. Not as an abstract concept or a classroom topic, but as something real, something survivable, and something worth talking about.

That's what lived experience does that a textbook never can. It makes the whole thing human.

Follow to see more moments from the Young Healthy Minds Forum.

You know your kid. Which means you're often the first person to notice when something is off.The simplest way to spot an...
15/06/2026

You know your kid. Which means you're often the first person to notice when something is off.

The simplest way to spot an early warning sign is this. If they either start doing something out of character, or stop doing something they normally do, pay attention. Withdrawing from friends, not answering messages, going quiet at the dinner table, losing interest in things they used to love. These things matter.

You don't need to have a big serious conversation straight away. Sometimes just showing up, spending time with them, letting them know you've noticed, is enough to open the door.

Trust your gut. You probably already know when something isn't right.

Schools do an incredible job. But there are some conversations they don't always have time for.How to recognise when a f...
12/06/2026

Schools do an incredible job. But there are some conversations they don't always have time for.

How to recognise when a friend is struggling. How to talk to someone without making them feel judged. How to understand the difference between stress and anxiety. How to build resilience before life demands it. How to sit with difficult emotions instead of scrolling past them.

These aren't niche topics. They are the things teenagers are navigating every single day, often without the language or tools to make sense of what they're feeling.

The Young Healthy Minds Forum exists to fill that gap. It's a full day, school-based experience where students get access to clinical psychologists and counsellors who speak honestly and practically about mental health in a way that feels real, not clinical. Students leave with tools, language, and a clearer sense of how to look after themselves and the people around them.

This is not a replacement for what schools already do. It's the conversation that sits alongside it.

If you'd like to see the Young Healthy Minds Forum come to your child's school in 2027, talk to your wellbeing coordinator or principal and mention us by name.

Or reach out to us directly at [email protected] and we can take it from there.

The Young Healthy Minds Forum doesn't end when the day does.One of the most powerful parts of the forum is what happens ...
11/06/2026

The Young Healthy Minds Forum doesn't end when the day does.

One of the most powerful parts of the forum is what happens in the final session. Students don't just receive information and go home. They pitch it back. In a dedicated segment called Take It Back, students present their own ideas for how to improve mental health awareness in their schools, to each other, to their peers, and to the people in the room who can help make it happen.

Because the goal was never just to leave students feeling inspired for a day. It was to give them something they could actually carry back through the school gates with them.

When young people are trusted with that kind of responsibility, something shifts. They stop being passive recipients of information and start becoming part of the solution. And that's exactly where real change begins.

The conversation doesn't stop at the forum. It starts there.

If your teenager comes to you upset, the most important thing you can do is also the hardest thing to resist. Don't tell...
08/06/2026

If your teenager comes to you upset, the most important thing you can do is also the hardest thing to resist.

Don't tell them how to feel. Not "don't be sad," not "look at everything you have," not "it's not that big a deal." Even when we mean well, dismissing what a young person is feeling is one of the most isolating things we can do to them. And if they feel judged or shut down the first time they open up, they won't come back. What they need instead is validation. "I can see you're upset. That makes sense." That's it.

When a young person feels genuinely heard, the pain actually comes down. They start to think more clearly. The conversation can go somewhere from there.

Your job isn't to fix it. Your job is to be the person they feel safe enough to talk to.

Every note on this wall was written by a student at the Young Healthy Minds Forum. Unprompted. In their own words.They w...
04/06/2026

Every note on this wall was written by a student at the Young Healthy Minds Forum.

Unprompted. In their own words.They wrote about hope. About learning to be a good friend. About sitting with discomfort instead of running from it. About understanding that everyone has mental health and that asking for help takes courage, not weakness.

This is what happens when young people are given a structured, safe space to have honest conversations about mental health with the right professionals in the room.The Young Healthy Minds Forum is a full day, school-based mental health education experience delivered by Positive Vibes Foundation in partnership with Burn Bright. Students leave with real language, real tools, and real strategies that the standard school curriculum doesn't always have time to cover.If you're a parent who wants to see this come to your school, the best thing you can do is ask.

Talk to your school's wellbeing coordinator or principal and mention the Young Healthy Minds Forum. The more parents who ask, the more schools will listen.

To find out more, contact us at [email protected]

02/06/2026

When a teacher leaves a student forum with a takeaway of her own, you know something real happened in that room.

Mel, a teacher from Kellyville High School watched her students spend a full day hearing from mental health professionals, lived experience speakers, and a panel willing to have the honest conversations that don't always make it into the school day.

The moment that stuck with her most? That no one has ever failed. They only get feedback, and it's not about the final result. It's about what you do with that feedback next.

For students who are so focused on results and performance, that reframe matters. A lot. The best part is the day doesn't end there. Mel is already looking forward to watching her students take the next step, putting real projects in place and coming up with their own ideas to help improve mental health awareness in their school.

That's the whole point. The forum plants something. The students grow it.

If you're a teacher or wellbeing coordinator who wants to bring the Young Healthy Minds Forum to your school, get in touch at [email protected]

02/06/2026

Six hours on TikTok a day. Sound familiar?

This student left the Young Healthy Minds Forum with a simple but pretty powerful realisation. That spending time with yourself, actually with yourself, is how you figure out who you are. Not by scrolling through what everyone else thinks you should be.

Hearing real stories from real people has a way of making that click in a way that a classroom lesson never quite does.

This is what one day can do.

No scripts. No prompts. Just students, a wall, and a Post-It note.These are the real takeaways from the Young Healthy Mi...
30/05/2026

No scripts. No prompts. Just students, a wall, and a Post-It note.

These are the real takeaways from the Young Healthy Minds Forum,written by students at the end of a full day spent talking openly about mental health, resilience, and what it means to look after yourself and the people around you.
Some wrote about hope. Some wrote about the courage it takes to ask for help. Some wrote about not judging people because you never know what they're carrying.

This is what young people are capable of when they're given the right space, the right conversations, and the right people in the room.

The Young Healthy Minds Forum is delivered by Positive Vibes Foundation in partnership with Burn Bright. To bring the forum to your school, contact us at [email protected]

Address

Building 32, Balcombe Heights Estate, 92 Seven Hills Road
Baulkham Hills, NSW
2153

Opening Hours

Thursday 10am - 12pm
Saturday 11am - 1pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when PVF Youth posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category