St Joseph's and Mt St Pats students unveil projects

Drug and alcohol awareness training for students and mental health first aid were leading topics as this year’s Tweed Shire Youth Council members started to outline their key projects for the year.

Mt St Patricks College and St Joseph’s College representative both explained their progress to introduce the Save-a-Mate program on drug and alcohol education to their schools, when the Youth Council met at the Murwillumbah Council Chambers on 24 May.

St Joseph’s College representatives Lucy Neilson-Senise and Oscar Winters raised concerns about the carefree attitude of many young people to drugs and their general lack of knowledge about the long-term effects.

The duo introduced a questions box for drug enquiries by students and received an overwhelming response.

Visit the Document Library to read their full report.

Mt St Patricks College delegate Jesse Wright told the meeting he had arranged to have the Red Cross Save-a-Mate workshop held at his school in June. The workshop would be open to Year 10 and 11 students and might require a second session because interest among students had exceeded the program’s maximum number of participants per workshop.

Jesse said he was also investigating options to provide mental health first aid training to students at his school.

The training would teach students to offer initial help and support for someone experiencing mental health problems, until professional help was received.

Jesse’s full presentation is also available in the Documents Library.