YOUTH FORUM
At the end of Term 1, a group of 4 students, from year 10, were invited to attend a youth forum at Know Grammar High School held by an organisation, KYDS. The group of students were accompanied by Ms Reynolds, our year adviser and our school chaplain Rob Waugh. This was the 3rd annual Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Youth Forum, and it has been helping kids our age who face many hardships on their own, to always find the positives in a bad situation. In this forum we outlined many areas of leading youth issues, such as (mental illnesses, bullying, drugs and alcohol), with a focus on positive mental health. After we had gotten to know some of the students around us, we slowly explored the booming statistics and facts, of the specific topics mentioned. The many different students, who attended this forum, were an eager bunch of teenagers who were ready to make a change in the lives around us. Some of the questions that arose, from an audience filled with students, were all to do with personal experiences with a friend, in or out of school, who were faced with a mental illness. Most of these questions were questions we had heard before, but on the other hand there were questions that were still yet to be heard. A few guest speakers who have had experiences with teens who face these issues were a part of the question and answer panel on the day. They were an encouraging group of adults, who gave specific students with concerns about a friend they knew, some skills and techniques to prevent their friend from doing harm not only to themselves, but to others around them. Majority of the questions asked were in some way related to mental health, because this was the leading cause of teenage deaths in Australia. Mental health was the main focus of the day, and as the discussion went on stigma was said to be the leading cause of mental illnesses in teens today. Stigma means a mark of insignificance that sets an