David Rooney - August 2022
Many hands make right work: Meet ALLKND
Close to 96,000 young Aussies attempt to end their lives every year. ALLKND want to change this. They teach Australia's first digital, peer-to-peer mental health first aid program, at scale around the country. We sat down with ALLKND Founder Milly Bannister to find out about the charity.
Pictured: ALLKND Founder, Milly Bannister
Q) Tell us about ALLKND. What do you do and what services do you provide?
A) ALLKND is an impact-led, Gen Z forward, not-for-profit, reducing the national youth suicide rate by teaching Australia's first digital, peer-to-peer mental health first aid program, at scale around the country. We believe in the #knowmoredomore effect. We’re on a mission to inspire compassion, smash the stigma and save young lives.
Q) What inspired you to start ALLKND?
A) After my own challenging and isolating experience as a 15-year-old supporting a close friend through suicidal ideation and self-harm, and consequentially developing my own mental health issues, I figured it was time Aussie youth were given the chance to empower themselves with evidence-based, preventative, peer-to-peer mental health first aid education.
Q) What is one massive goal you have?
A) One massive goal I keep in mind is detectibly preventing youth suicide by empowering young Aussies with mental health literacy, compassion and crisis intervention tools. I would also like to throw a massive Gen Z-powered festival/ conference event to bring our community together.
Q) What is the most memorable thing that has happened since starting ALLKND?
A) A short while ago we were asked by Newscorp to add our voices to their Youth Suicide Prevention campaign. We were able to contribute 4 strong feature articles and share our community stories and education opportunities will a huge Aussie readership.
Q) What's something we can do today to improve the mental health of young Aussies and Kiwis?
A) We can help today by adopting compassion. We can adopt compassion by learning more about different ways mental illness presents in our community.
Q) What are three resources or tools you recommend to help with mental health?
A) Everyone has a level of mental health, and some things aren’t helpful depending on where you are on the spectrum. If we could suggest some preventative tools for those feeling stable or neutral, we’d definitely recommend conducting a social media audit to remove stuff that may pull you out of that neutral zone, making sure you’re taking care of your core needs (sleep, hydration, movement, fuel), as well as identifying who your support network might be for when things get hard.
Q) How can people donate to ALLKND?
A) Make our day! Head to allknd.org to get familiar with our mission and donate your time, resources or attention to help us scale our impact :)
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