About SHAW UP
Watawieh!
SHAW’ stands for: ‘Student Health and Wellbeing’. The ‘Up’ is about building something strong!
And ‘Watawieh’ is ‘Hello’ in Norf’k, the language of Norfolk Island.
The Aims of SHAW UP
A Peer led project:
- Aimed to positively influence the overall mental health and wellbeing of young people on Norfolk Island
- Via the above, aimed to impact harmful substance use amongst young people on Norfolk Island
The Project
The wonderful Karen from Norfolk Island Health, was the key person who put this program together and secured funding for it. Karen contacted me to act as Guide and Facilitator for the peer educators and subsequently she and I spent many hours communicating across the waves via email, Face-time and Zoom, planning the Project. Once the Framework was established, I visited Norfolk Island for a week to work with the students and all others involved with the Project. Karen and I maintained contact across the waves and I returned some months later for another week to work with the peer educators to finalise and publicly present their Projects. All in all, a very uplifting and wonderful experience.
What Helped the Project Succeed?
The program was indeed successful, as evidenced not only by observations and conversations, but by written evaluations done with the participants which showed clear agreement as to its being a valuable experience for the peer educators. Evaluating the impact of the individual projects on young people on Norfolk is beyond the resources of the Project. The following are brief notes about the ingredients which contributed to the success of SHAW UP
- Good organisation and planning throughout
- A clearly identified go-to person heading the Project. In this case the hard-working Karen from Norfolk Health Service
- Enlisting an experienced ‘Guide’ to work with the Project
- Making sure the ‘Guide’ became known to all involved parties through a series of workshops/public events:
- The school
- Clear ‘go-to’ school staff involved with SHAW UP
- ‘A talk’ at the school Assembly by myself resulting not only in the students and staff getting to know me, but in lots of ‘hellos’, waves and playful questions from students to me as I went for my morning jog
- Interactive workshops by myself across all years at the school, focussing on wellbeing, sense of self, being courageous, relationships, taking risks when needed, looking after others
- Teachers and the Principal attended these workshops, as did the peer educators
- Conversations/Planning with myself, Karen and teachers at school with the SHAW UP Ambassadors
- Parents/carers/community
- An evening discussion and presentation by myself of the thinking behind SHAW UP and how parents/carers might support their young ones throughout the Project
- Support People
- As with the parents/carers, an evening conversation and workshop for community members who had expressed an interest in being involved with SHAW-UP
- The wider community and the Norfolk Island Council of Elders
- A public event open to all, with a wonderful address from the ‘head’ of the Council of Elders; followed by a presentation and discussion about SHAW UP and its aims
- And finally, the public launch of the SHAW UP Projects
- Importantly, having a vision, hard work, energy and determination throughout.
One of the final Projects, a fun run, with lots of community involvement, around beautiful Norfolk, can be seen in the SHAW UP Visit 2 video you will find on my website.
If you would like to know more about any aspect of SHAW UP, you’re welcome to contact me.
Or contact the person whose vision made this all happen, Karen Innes-Walker, Health and Wellbeing Coordinator Norfolk Island Health and Residential Aged Care Services karen.walker@health.nlk.gov.nf.
Best wishes
Pete
