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IT’S a time for celebration as headspace gets set to open its doors to the young people of Albury-Wodonga and their families on Monday.
What an incredible 2½ years it has been, with the community campaign to win funding to establish a headspace in Albury-Wodonga started in August 2012 as part of The Border Mail’s Ending the Suicide Silence series.
The response from people of all ages was overwhelming; by the end of that month we had covered the windows of our Albury office with more than 4000 butterflies signed by young people, their parents, local and federal politicians, musicians, sports stars; pretty much everyone who was asked to back this campaign did so.
And the reason for that? Well everyone understood the importance of improving mental health services for young people in Albury-Wodonga who struggled with issues including depression, bullying and substance abuse.
Here at The Border Mail we have unashamedly worn our heart on our sleeve in our push for headspace; this service was repeatedly being called for throughout our community and we saw evidence of that need on an ongoing basis.
We will always be proud of our campaign but we are proud too of the response from Albury-Wodonga; when the call went out for support, thousands of people signed the butterflies and petitions.
People got their families to sign, their friends; and they put the pressure on community leaders to do the same.
One hundred students from Border high schools came together in October 2012 to meet on Gateway Island to champion the cause, dressing in yellow and purple, and calling for a service they wanted for themselves and their peers.
Some of those same young people remain involved with headspace as part of its youth advisory committee that will ensure the new centre continues to meet the needs of those it will serve.
We thank the thousands of people who lent their support to a message that finally caught the ear of government in late 2012 ahead of that exciting announcement in June 2013 that we would get a headspace centre.
We thank those who are part of the consortium of youth and health organisations for their work that will support the operation of headspace.
And we thank all the community members who donated any money for headspace to ensure its services will be delivered equitably among our young people.
We welcome the headspace Albury-Wodonga team with open arms and offer our best wishes for their future success.