Young leaders addressing mental health

The Satellite Foundation’s Menzies Young Leader program is in full swing!

Eight amazing young people from various parts of Victoria are participating in a series of six Saturday workshops, talking about shared experiences of living in a family where a parent or sibling has mental health issues, and how to capture and transform their experiences and wisdom into leadership and advocacy roles. 

The Satellite Foundation in Melbourne is the only not for profit in Victoria which exclusively focuses on supporting children, young people and their families where a parent has a mental illness.

The Menzies Young Leader program is being co-designed and co-facilitated by an amazing young person with lived experience of mental health in the family.

The program involves external facilitators from Channel 10 and FYA (Foundation for Young Australians) coming to contribute to workshops, along with Satellite young leaders from a previous leaderships program.

The Menzies Foundation awarded a small Menzies Alumni Community Leadership grant to the Satellite Foundation to run the Young Leader program after Satellite was nominated by 2004 Menzies Research Scholar in the Allied Health Sciences, Dr Kerry Proctor.

The 2016 Menzies Alumni Community Leadership Grants enabled Menzies scholars to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to a community organisation with which they had an existing relationship. Kerry has since joined the Board of the Satellite Foundation.

The Menzies Young Leaders will graduate from the program on 8 October.

Pictured are the leadership program participants, along with Satellite Foundation Executive Director, Rose Cuff.

Natasha Eskinja

Digital Communications Coordinator

Natasha is driven by a profound passion for both creativity and analytics, a synergy that fosters authentic storytelling in the digital realm with both innovation and integrity. 

Throughout her career, she has consistently integrated the overarching marketing and communications narrative with the emotional connections of audiences. She is currently pursuing a Certificate in Society and the Individual from Flinders University, furthering her exploration of human behaviour and the critical importance of connectedness between organisations, individuals, and communities.