Activity details
The National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Bilateral Agreement commits funding for the Youth at Risk project to develop and establish a youth mental health initiative to fill identified gaps in the ACT service system to support youth with, or at risk of, moderate mental ill health and young people who have experienced all forms of domestic, family, and sexual violence and trauma; and ensuring the enhancement and integration of the existing youth mental health services.
Implementation progress update
The Youth at Risk project grant procurement activity began in 2025 to procure NGO(s) to deliver the new Youth Trauma Service to young people aged 13-17 years inclusive (or 18 if engaged in school) to promote recovery from mental ill health and healing from the impacts of trauma, including domestic, family, and sexual violence. The Service Design Report has been co-produced with a Youth Reference Group and more than 300 individuals and organisations, with consultation activities beginning in 2023 through to 2025, to ensure that the Service is informed by children and young people and is age appropriate.
Co-design activities included engagement with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and culturally and linguistically diverse community to embed cultural safety in the Service design. The project design has an embedded trauma-informed evaluation framework developed by the Office of Mental Health and Wellbeing, and plans are underway for the procurement of an evaluation specialist to measure the effectiveness of the Youth Trauma Service's co-production mechanisms in promoting recovery and healing from trauma and reducing mental ill health.
For more information see Youth at Risk Project publications.
More information
- Learn about the National Plan to End Violence against women and children 2022-2032.
- Read the First Action Plan 2023-2027.
- Browse the First Action Plan 2023-2027 Activities Addendum update.