jack@inspire

The Biggest Deficit Of All - The Deficit Of Hope

Imagine a country where, each year, 1 million of its high school students attempt suicide.

Imagine a country where, if you are female and from a particular race, it’s likely that 1 in 9 of your friends have attempted suicide at least once in the past year.

Imagine a country, where if you are a young male of mixed race at high school, your chances of attempting suicide are 1 in 8.

Imagine a country where in the average high school classroom of 30 students, 8 will have experienced high levels of mental distress, 4 will have thought seriously of suicide, 3 will have drawn up a plan and 2 will have attempted suicide at least once in the past 12 months.

Imagine America. 

According to US Census data, in October 2009 there were 16,445,000 students enrolled in high schools across the country.

According to the Center for Disease Control’s 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey the average number of high school students who attempt suicide in a given year is 6.3 per cent.

Do the math.  It translates into 1,036,035 American high school students attempting suicide each year.

This is a hope deficit of profoundly disturbing proportions.  If ever there was a deficit that needed reducing this it.  We need to embark upon a national effort that builds hope and inspiration in lives of millions of our teens and young adults.  And we need to do it now.

Thankfully, a number of national leaders in the field of suicide prevention have banded together to form the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention – a public-private joint initiative.  Co-chaired by the Secretary of the Army John McHugh, and the President and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters Senator Gordon Smith, the Action Alliance’s goal is to advance the national strategy for suicide prevention http://actionallianceforsuicideprevention.org.

While the focus of the Action Alliance is across the age spectrum, it’s essential that we focus a large part of our efforts on the youth population because 75% of mental illness has its first onset before the age of 25 years.  Tragically, a majority of young women, and an overwhelming majority of young men, with a mental disorder do not access professional support.  Not only does this negatively impact on their academic achievement and college graduation rates but it leads to an escalation of problems that often plays out many years down the track.  If you can make an intervention that moves the needle on youth suicide it should translate into reduced rates of suicide and suffering down the line.

In today’s world, through technology, we have an unprecedented opportunity to reach out and connect with the millions of young people going through tough times.  Through the Internet, and services like www.ReachOut.com or www.trevorproject.org young people now have places where they can go to get information, advice on support on issues that they think they alone are experiencing.  Be it reading stories or watching videos of young people who talk about how they made it through a tough time, young people today now have a source of inspiration that is only a click away.  They can discover that there are young people, just like them, who have experienced problems just like theirs, but found a way to make it through.

Consider Brandon, a 17 year old young man from Illinois.  A few months ago, feeling like there was no way out of his predicament, Brandon when to Google and typed in “ways to commit suicide”.  There among the search results he stumbled across www.ReachOut.com.  In Brandon’s words “After reading many hours of watching videos, reading testimonials, and doing some simple reflection I came to the glorious conclusion to push on, and make it through.  In the following months, I told my parents, started going to counseling, consulted my doctor, and started to change my personality and outlook on life.”  Today Brandon is a volunteer on ReachOut.com’s national youth council.

Or consider, “Shanna” a 17 year old young woman from Michigan who sent in this message to ReachOut.com “I’ve been having a really hard time lately and this website has saved my life.  I’ve been thinking about suicide a lot and the stories of here have helped me move past the thoughts and work to get better again.  Thank you to everyone who has been brave enough to share their story.  It really does help, you never know whose life you may be saving.”

In today’s digital world, with services like Google and Facebook, we are presented with an incredible opportunity to reach out to young people whom no service could ever reach before.  We can do it at a fraction of the cost of traditional services and we can do it in a way that provides hope and inspiration for those young people wondering whether life is worth living – young people who don’t want to die but sadly can’t see any alternative than attempting to end their life.

If we are prepared to bail out our banks with billions and billions of dollars in a time of economic deficit surely we can do the same for our young people to reduce their hope deficit.  It won’t cost anywhere the extraordinary sums that have been spent to date on shoring up the financial system. 

With 1 million American high school students attempting suicide each year, Shanna’s comment that “you never know whose life you may be saving” has an urgency and relevancy that speaks to the entire nation.  It calls on every one of us who cares about young people to set about turning a deficit of hope into a surplus of hope.

 

Jack Heath is the Founder, President and CEO of the Inspire USA Foundation which runs the ReachOut.com service.  He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.  A former Senior Adviser to Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, Jack and his family moved to San Francisco in 2010 so he could lead the Inspire USA Foundation www.inspireusafoundation.org.

Australian Story - Missing In Action

The Australian Story feature which recently aired showed many people who have contributed to the Inspire story.  There were two other individuals in particular whose contributions have been absolutely critical but whose role was not touched upon – Daniel Petre and Jono Nicholas.  Without either of them ReachOut, and for that matter Inspire, would simply not exist today and they need to be accorded due credit for the critical roles they have both played.

Back in 1994, when I was working for Prime Minister Keating on the Creative Nation Multimedia Policy piece, we called in Michael Rennie and David Harrington who were both working at McKinsey and Daniel Petre who was then head of Microsoft Australia.  Michael and David I had known for a couple of years but I hadn’t meant Daniel before.  A former boss of mine Stephen Martin, who was to become Speaker of the House, had met Daniel in the United States and urged me to link up with him when he got to Australia.

So with Michael, David, Daniel and the PM we set about crafting a set of initiatives that put the internet and its social possibilities well and truly on the public policy agenda.  My contribution to the policy outcomes was to bring these guys into the meeting – together with the PM they formulated the policies.  Following this meeting Daniel arranged for Bill Gates to meet with the PM when Gates visited in early 1995.  I also met Gates briefly at a breakfast Daniel had arranged and I was surprised and struck by the warmth Gates exuded.  Daniel predicted that Gates would give away most of his money – a long time before he in fact did. 

That was the beginning of my friendship with Daniel.  Then later in August that year I found myself in my bedroom in Canberra joining with 30 other people from around the world on the newly established Microsoft Network.  As a way of garnering interest in this new medium they had involved well known people and on this day it happened to be Deepak Chopra.  So when I posted my question along the lines of “shouldn’t we be thinking about the Internet in terms of its social potential?” I was blown away when it drew an immediate affirmative response from Deepak Chopra.  It was this that led me to call Daniel and express my amazement at the power of the technology.  By this point in time Daniel had become familiar with the story of my cousin’s suicide back in 1992 and we shared a concern about the escalating youth suicide rates which were being given prominent coverage in the media.  It was Daniel who then suggested that I should use the Internet to do something about youth suicide in Australia and asked that I write to him in his role as head of Microsoft requesting assistance.  I did and from that I received a grant of $10,000 which set us on our way.    So I set about the work, got some additional grants from Microsoft and was introduced by Daniel to Lintas Online the team who built our first prototype.   

Not too long after that on one of my stays with Michael Rennie down in Kangaroo Valley Michael had given me a copy of Steve Biddulph’s book Manhood.  I was so taken by Steve’s book that I bought many copies and gave it away to friends including Daniel not knowing he would become one of my biggest personal backers and Inspire’s most generous supporters.

Around this time it also became clear that I couldn’t continue working on the ReachOut project as a sole operator and in a conversation with Michael Rennie and Paul Gilding again at Michael’s place in Kangaroo Valley Michael suggested we establish a charitable foundation.  I subsequently approached a school mate and former Foreign Affairs colleague John Denton who had just started working at the law firm Corrs (he is now their CEO) and he arranged for Corrs to provide their legal services to establish Inspire and have been amazing supporters ever since.   John also very kindly arranged for Inspire to receive extensive pro bono legal services from Latham & Watkins in the US and A&L Goodbody in Ireland.

In early 1996 I got an email from Daniel asking whether I would consider working with him Graeme Galt, Rob Olver, and Steve Biddulph and become the Founding Editor for an internet site on men’s issues – Manhood Online.  As it turned out, my wife Catherine had been offered a position to establish the Sydney office of IDP Education Australia whom she had been working with in Thailand and then in Canberra.  So in Easter 1996 we picked up sticks with Lucy 20 months old and headed to Sydney. 

I continued to work away at Manhood Online and wrote a piece dealing with the abuse I had encountered at boarding school but my real passion was around ReachOut.  In November 1996 we had formally established the foundation (initially as “the New Australia Foundation” but that’s another story) and shortly thereafter Alexandra Yuille joined Michael, Paul and me as the founding directors – all of whom were to make very significant financial contributions.  We had started pursuing government funding but without much luck.  Fortunately another good friend and fellow Melb Uni law grad Nicole Feeley had become Chief of Staff to the new Prime Minister John Howard and it was through Nicole’s early support that we got a meeting with Health Minister Michael Wooldridge and in July 1997 our first government grant.  I then stopped working on the Manhood Online project and devoted myself fulltime to getting ReachOut established.

From the back office of our house in Leichhardt, with government funding coming our way we set about building the ReachOut service and had the good fortune to be recipients of the 1997 Triple J Real Appeal which enabled us to develop the young people’s component of the website – something the Government didn’t feel comfortable supporting at the time.  One of the very first people we employed on the team was Jono Nicholas who had been recommended to me by Dr John Howard – one of our first mental health advisers and another great supporter of Inspire.

Jono was just finishing up a thesis on suicide among gay youth for his psychology degree.  He wore his hair in a pony tail and barely looked twenty years old.  Shortly thereafter we rented a dingy apartment/office 100 metres from our home and above a real estate agent in Parramatta Rd – when we left it became a brothel.  Both my home and our office were directly under the flight path - karmic pay back for writing the speech for the Prime Minister opening the Third Runway at Sydney Airport. 

 In the early stages, ReachOut was very much a grief project on my part.  I had these ideas about what we needed to do for young people but it was Jono who stressed the need for us to build it with young people.  It was by deferring to him and a number of others who understood this critical distinction that we launched a prototype of ReachOut.com in late 1997 followed by an official launch by The Hon Warwick Smith – another great Inspire supporter – in March 1998.  Jono led the way in developing our youth engagement program which I believe is the secret sauce to ReachOut’s success.  In his quiet unassuming way he built the bedrock for how we were to deliver our service in the years to come. 

A couple of years later I was about to head off on an extended retreat and the issue came up of who should be in charge in my absence.  Our Directors of what thankfully by then had become the “inspire Foundation” – goodbye NAF – urged me to put in place the person I felt most capable of becoming the next CEO and I chose Jono much to the shock and consternation of staff.  Jono did the job and did it well.  Over the many years we have been operating in the midst of the ups and downs Jono has been a constant.  He’s called me on things when no one else would and provided the driving force behind our work.  He was instrumental in bringing on board Dr Jane Burns who has been another key leader at Inspire.

And as I was off having meetings with Rupert Murdoch and others in the US Jono was following up on Irish interest in establishing ReachOut over there.  From 1995 to 1999 Ireland and Australia had pretty well the same suicide rates but from 2000 onwards Australia’s continued to decline strongly whereas in Ireland the rate flattened out.  I was largely intent on pursuing the American expansion and felt Ireland, while important, was not our first priority but things continued to fall into place on the Irish front.  Jono was the one who worked away developing the business plan and bringing me in to do as he calls it “the honcho thing” – securing our first tranche of funding and getting the Inspire Ireland Foundation established.  Jono then generously moved his young family to Ireland for the second half of 2009 to get the Irish team up and running which he did incredibly well and I flew in for the launch of ReachOut Ireland at the end of that year.

In May this year, when Kerry Graham stepped down as CEO of Inspire in Australia after three years of dedicated service, Jono became our CEO and was voted in unanimously by the Inspire Australia board.  His appointment as CEO is due recognition of the central role he has played all along and I know that he is better equipped to lead Inspire Australia going forward than I would be. 

There are many others who have been key players in the Inspire story be it Marie Bashir and Vicki Forbes with us from the beginning, to Carolyn Sullivan who made the Irish introduction and scored a husband along the way, to our esteemed Chairman Mark Mentha and his fellow directors, to Geoff Handbury, to Julie White, to Brian Wilson, to Suzi Carp, to Mark Willcocks, to Mark Carnegie, to Ian Darling, to Julian Tertini and our other major donors, to the fabulous Sophie Gemmell, to the extraordinary and highly talented Youth Ambassadors to the many other great people who have worked for Inspire over the years and those who make up Inspire today.  And to our many corporate partners from Microsoft at the start to Macquarie Group who enable our foray into the United States.

So for any generous comments that might come my way or the way of those featured in the Australian Story piece they should apply equally to Daniel and Jono and to them both I say a heart-felt thank you.  And thank you to everyone else who is part of the big Inspire story.

   

Be Here Now – Curse You Facebook

It’s ironic that someone who spends their working hours using the Internet to help young people get through tough times should find himself sometimes wishing the Internet didn’t exist – but that’s the space I find myself in just now.  And as for Facebook, well don’t get me started.

You see at the end of January our family moved to San Francisco for me to head up the Inspire USA Foundation.  Inspire’s mission is to help millions of young people lead happier lives and we’ve been operating in Australia since 1997 and started in the US in 2007 and Ireland 2008.

Moving overseas is always a big deal – at least my wife and I have done that before (Thailand in the late 80s) and she many times before that as well – but it’s an even bigger deal for the kids.  Ours are Lucy 15 years old and Jamie 10.  Jamie is not on Facebook but Lucy is and therein lies my gripe - because of her strong friendships in Australia she is conversing with her friends "back home" every single day and night.  What this means is that she will fall back to those relationships were she feels comfortable and invest less in establishing new ones here in the Bay Area in her new home.  Now I know we’ve only been here six weeks and yes, maybe I should wait a little longer with Lucy but I’m concerned about the Net’s tendency to work against “being here now”.

Related to this I was staying in DC last week with my good friend Rev Dave McAllister-Wilson who heads up the Wesley Theological Seminary and we were talking about the high incidence of PTSD and the possible reasons behind this.  Dave had been conversing with one of the senior chaplains in the US military who said that the incidences of PTSD are far, far higher than they ever were for WW2, the Korean War and even the Vietnam war.  So we got to wondering whether the Net (or more accurately modern day communications) might be a contributing factor.  An example was given of a young soldier who is on duty in Iraq where missiles are showering down and he’s on the phone to his wife in Wyoming talking about their renovations.  As with my daughter Lucy, thanks to technology, this young soldier is striving to exist in two places at the same time but, in his case, far more different and difficult places and presumably leading to even greater stress than might otherwise be the case.  Can our connectedness actually increase our discontent?

I was told last year by a relative of a drone pilot that they much higher rates of PTSD than normal pilots – it’s a variation on the above in that they go into the office, fly the drone planes and then head home to have dinner with their families.  All a bit to surreal for me. 

So how do we stay grounded rather than just connected in today’s inter-connected world?  How can we be here now in the age of facebook?  Hopefully we’ll find some answers at the Wisdom 2.0 Summit being held here in the Bay Area at the end of April.  See:  http://www.wisdom2summit.com/home  

My Hopes and Dreams for Inspire

In early 2009, Inspire’s senior leadership team from Australia, the US and Ireland gathered together at Bawley Point about four hours drive south of Sydney to spend time working out how we might go about helping millions of young people lead happier lives.  In the lead up to the gathering each member of “the Bawley Crew” wrote down our hopes and aspirations for Inspire.  Here is an edited version of mine.

 

I want for Inspire to be of as much benefit to as many young people as we possibly can be - Inspire’s potential to touch the lives of young people is as big as our collective imagination. 

 

I want to contribute to Inspire’s success in the most appropriate ways that I can – to be of genuine and lasting service in whatever form that might take, mindful of my limitations and avoid being a bottleneck in areas not my strength.

 

I see my contribution being primarily around storytelling, people, and securing resources for our work. 

 

I am passionate about having best-in-world people on the Inspire bus and playing my part in getting those people on board - by “best-in-world” I mean best in terms of both ability and commitment. 

 

I am passionate about building on and nurturing the existing Inspire culture as set out in our values and behaviours.   I believe that the life of a young Australian is worth no more and no less than the life of a young American, a young Irish, a young Chinese or a young Sudanese.  Our Inspire Dream for young people is a dream for every young person. 

 

I want for Inspire to be a self-aware and deeply authentic organisation which is powered for impact in the lives of young people. 

 

In the busyness and worthiness of our endeavours it’s essential that we each take out time to reflect and nurture ourselves.  For that reason every Inspire entity will always offer an extra week for reflection leave.  To fulfill the wishes of our dearly beloved Kelly Betts we have also pledged to urge other nonprofit organizations to include reflection leave as a normal part of their working conditions.

 

I want to see young people who have benefited from Inspire take on leadership positions in the various Inspire entities on an ongoing basis and to inspire other young people to follow in their footsteps.

 

I want for Inspire to always challenge us individually and to be a place of enormous personal and professional growth fostering enthusiasm and a deep sense of joy.

I want for us to scale as fast as we sustainably can.  In the immediate term that means securing our US and Irish ventures before we move further afield to embrace other countries.

 

I want Inspire to be a thriving and inclusive community of passionate supporters and partners united around the world in our mission to help millions of young people lead happier lives. 

 

Our Dream

is for a world where every young person

can stand up and say:

 

I am a young person.

I am loved and I love.

 

There lies before me a land of endless opportunity where I can learn and grow.

There lies within me a limitless ocean of compassion and kindness.

 

I respect all people, including myself, for who we are.

I celebrate our common humanity and I honour our individual differences.

 

I show up for life each morning ready for whatever comes my way.

I give my best and I know it will make all the difference.

 

I am making my world a better place.

I am happy.

 

 

Inspire launches in Ireland

On 10 September 2009 - World Suicide Prevention Day - the Inspire Ireland Foundation was officially launched by the Australian Ambassador to Ireland Anne Plunkett at a function held at her Killarney residence and attended by over forty senior business, government and community representatives. 

The guest of honour, Irish Minister for Health Mary Harney, spoke passionately of the importance of Inspire's work and the need for the Reachout.com service to be available to the young people of Ireland 24/7.  Minister Harney also shared with the gathering her own personal experience of having lost a friend to suicide when she had been at University and said she was very much looking forward to the launch of the Irish version of Reachout.com later this year.

[Rear R-L: Susan Hennessy, Brendan Tuohy, Jonathan Nicholas, John Foong.  Front R-L: Jack Heath, Ambassador Anne Plunkett, Health Minister Mary Harney, Colin Hunt] 

In launching the Foundation, Ambassador Plunkett spoke of the extensive ties between Australia and Ireland and the very substantial contribution Reachout.com could play in helping the young people of Ireland.

[Inspire Ireland Team: Rear R-L: Brendan Tuohy (Director), Ian Brunswick, Vincent McCarthy, Derek Chambers, John Foong (Director).  Front R-L: Jack Heath, Colin Hunt (Chairman), Susan Hennessy, Jonathon Nicholas.  Rachel O'Connell (Director,absent)]

Inspire Chairman Colin Hunt, Irish Head of Macquarie Capital and former senior adviser to the now Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, spoke of his reasons for taking on the Chairmanship of Inspire Ireland.  He made the case that in the same way Governments had been able to reduce the road toll they should look to do the same with suicide and called for all sectors to work hard to reduce the stigma of mental illness.  Colin also pointed to Inspire Ireland's goal for 450,000 young people in Ireland to be aware of Reachout.com by 2012 with more than 125,000 having accessed the service.   Colin expressed Inspire's deep appreciation for the very generous grant from the One Foundation which had enabled the Foundation to be established.  Colin thanked Tony Bates and the team at Headstrong for their warm welcome to Inspire, their great support and the exciting partnership opportunities as Headstrong and Inspire join forces to work with the young people of Ireland for their benefit.

[R-L: Jono Nicholas (CEO Inspire Ireland), Deirdre Mortell (Co-Founder, One Foundation), Tony Bates (Founder and CEO Headstrong)]

So all in all a great evening and very warm thanks to the Ambassador for hosting such a great kick-off for Inspire Ireland and to Health Minister Harney for giving her time and support to the launch.  Please stay tuned for the launch of Reach Out in early November - most likely without the ties and suits!

TREAD CAREFULLY WHEN REPORTING SUICIDE

The decision by beyondblue to seek an injunction against the 60 minutes program on the deaths of four young people in a Victorian school raises some critical issues about how we cover suicide in our media.  These are extremely delicate matters – particularly where a specific community is so deeply affected and we all need to tread very carefully.  Good intentions are simply not enough.

At the outset, we need to acknowledge the pain and suffering of the parents and those immediately affected by these suicides.  It’s difficult to imagine what could be more devastating for a parent and it is very understandable when those bereaved by suicide want to share their grief with the wider world and do whatever they can to prevent it occurring again. 

On a personal note, it was my experience of losing a young cousin to suicide on our family farm in northeastern Victoria coupled with Australia’s then escalating rates of youth suicide that led us to establish the Inspire Foundation back in 1996.    Inspire’s Internet-based service Reachout.com, which connects with more than 200,000 young Australians each year, has been one of a number of services and government initiatives that have helped contributed to a 57% fall in the youth suicide rates since 1997.   It’s important that we understand the real progress that has been made on this issue but as these recent tragic events show there is still so much more to be done.

In the current circumstances, I believe the primary focus must be to ask ourselves what’s in the best interest of the young people directly affected?  How do we best support these young people and those close to them through these tough and tragic times?  As important as principles of press freedom are, my concern at this point in time is with the young people immediately involved.  The risk of contagion is a very real issue.

We understand things are quite fragile within the local school community.  We know that beyondblue, the Victorian Government and others are very concerned about the potential impact the 60 Minutes piece could have on the local community.

The overriding question to ask ourselves in situations like this is – will our media coverage of the issue give young people a greater sense of hope?  As a result of the media coverage will young people in the wider Geelong area and around Australia now have a better understanding of how and where they can get help?  Will they feel more supported and better equipped to deal with these tough times?

No one is saying don’t talk about suicide.  But we need to talk about it responsibly and in a way that doesn’t put additional young people at risk.

There is a fundamental difference discussing an issue like this when things are still very raw and potentially dangerous compared with a more reflective analysis some time down the track - and even then we need to be careful.   

The emotions that are thrown up by suicide are incredibly powerful and we need to be vigilant in ensuring the heat stays in our heart while we keep our heads cool.  In the early days of Inspire, I definitely had a savior mentality that wanted to rush in and “rescue” young people before experts and young people quickly led me to a more measured and appropriate response.

There are also some very salient lessons to learn from the media portrayal of a cluster of youth suicides in Bridgend in South Wales over the past couple of years.  We need to ensure we don’t see a repeat of the totally inappropriate media coverage that occurred in Bridgend where there was a frightening escalation of the suicides.

Specialists from Oxford University’s Centre for Suicide Research have pointed to “compelling evidence of increases in suicidal behavior after the appearance of news reports, fictional drama representations and suicidal manuals.”

“Studies have also found increases in suicides after a picture is used of the victim or the location and where the story is sensationalised, is prominent in the paper and is repeated.”

Ten international studies have revealed a direct causal link between the reported suicide and those happening afterwards. 

In light of this evidence, we must tread with great caution and avoid rushing in as much as we might feel strongly for those involved, particularly the parents.  

We need to keep very cool heads and ensure we do not add to an already precarious environment.  We need to work extra hard to ensure we do no harm.  Media guidelines have been put in place specifically to counter the risk of contagion.

It is entirely appropriate that beyondblue and others are deeply concerned about the 60 Minutes program going to air.  60 Minutes ran a program in May 2007 covering the suicide of two young Victorian girls.  We were involved in discussions with 60 Minutes regarding that piece where they failed to heed advice and ran a piece that was highly irresponsible and potentially very dangerous.  It was not surprising that the Australian Communications and Media Authority subsequently made a finding that 60 Minutes had breached the guidelines on the reporting of suicide. 

I have no doubt that the team at 60 Minutes are well-intentioned and genuinely empathise with the anguish of those affected particularly the parents but I think they should be focusing their energy on working with organizations like Beyondblue rather than risk adding to a sense of despair and hopelessness.  We need to ensure we always give young people a message of hope and support – when you have a particular community deeply affected you need to be even more careful.

Parents should talk with their kids and young people about what support is available and actively explore these options.  Log onto reachout.com and check out the fact sheets, put hotline telephone hotlines up on the fridge and talk about the role of school counselors and GPs and how they can help.  The key message should be – you’re not alone and you will get through it.

For young people, we know that they first turn to their friends if they’re doing it tough and no doubt they’ll be talking about this very issue among themselves.  Therefore we need to promote available supports and make sure parents have discussions with their children about what to do if a friend speaks to them about thoughts of suicide.  This is where websites like reachout.com and beyondblue.org.au can help as well as Lifeline and Kids Help Line on the phone and face to face services such as Headspace, GPs and community health centres. 

We need to focus on giving people hope and support rather than being sucked into the vortex that is suicide fed by parental fears of their worst nightmare.

Perhaps it’s time that the heads of the Australian media sat down with the leading experts in the field and governments so that together we can privately work out a way forward that avoids the need for anyone to even consider having to take out an injunction.

Everyone wants to prevent further suicides – let’s work together and use the opportunity this court case provides to help more young people lead happier lives.

Jack Heath is the Founder and Executive Director of the Inspire Foundation – www.inspire.org.au.

Blinkers, Vulnerability and Growth - Further, Faster, Together

When we are deeply passionate about achieving a BHAG - be it personal or organisational - we often run the risk of being so focused on our goal that we effectively put on blinkers.  The blinkers close off our peripheral vision and we miss out on seeing those things in the wings/margins that might: a) frustrate, or b) assist, in achieving our BHAG.

The risks are greater in the non-profit world where a genuine nobility of purpose and deep-seated desire to make a difference bring an added intensity to our work that can further limit our big picuture perspective. 

This is particularly so when an organisation is on a fast growth path and the exciting new opportunities can paper over the cracks that become more apparent when the growth slows.

Going fast can be a lot of fun and highly addictive - the question is is it sustainable?  Go alone and you go fast, go together and you go far.  So if you go fast best to go fast together but then even more important that we pay attention to our peripheral vision along the way, or if we find that too hard that we at least keep our ears open to the wiser voices around us.   

We need to be able to stop and take stock from time to time - rare for yachts to get to their destination by going in a straight line - need to chop and change tack according to the weather and best not to be going too fast when you choose to change direction.    

For leaders, sometimes it is right to be right out in front, going fast, galloping along.  At other times, we need to canter, trot or walk alongside others or simply stop.  Sometimes we need to be behind bringing the stragglers back into the mob so that we all move further faster together.  Great leadership requires us a) to know when we should be out in front, alongside or behind and b) to have the discipline to change our pace to what is most appropriate for the group at any point in time. 

In the early 90s I sought to bring together a group of young leaders who would create a new vision for Australia with myself taking up a political career to "save Australia'.  At one level, the intent was noble but at another level it was grandiose, a vanity, a procrastination  I had given myself a "great and noble project" because it was much easier than addressing some more personal issues closer to home.

As a would be leader I was trying to close off the very area that would be the greatest source of my growth - my vulnerability.  No one likes being vulnerable but I have come to realise that it is in being vulnerable that real growth lies.  People deeply respect leaders who are vulnerable and honest without being self-indulgent. 

A prayer to be of service to the world is a prayer of vulnerability which paradoxically leads to feeling less vulnerable and being of greater service. 

Inspiring Rockefeller Words

I spent today walking New York City with my wife Catherine.  We had arrived last evening in the land of Obama direct from Sydney Australia.  We spent the evening having a late dinner on 92nd st celebrating a dear friend's 46th birthday along with Tania Plibersek whom I had met on the plane and gratuitously invited to the dinner.  Even though we finished dinner well after midnight our bodies we were still on Sydney time zone as we walked the 89 blocks back to our apartment just across from Madison Square Gardens.

Today we woke late around noon and headed upper westside walking across Central Park to the Guggenheim.  Usually trips to NYC for me are about work from beginning to end and, in the absence of Catherine, I doubt I would have ventured to the Guggenheim. 

We saw a wonderful exhibition "The Third Way" which looks at how the art, literature, and philosophies of the East influenced new visual and conceptual langues of modern and contemporary art in America.  Starting the exhibition was a stunning work by James Lee Byars titled  "The Death of James Lee Byars".    Standing in front of the installation, the gold leaf took me back to our first overseas trip together to Rangoon, Burma in early 1985 where we visited the beautiful Shwedagon Temple which is covered in gold leaf.  I mused how it was Catherine that introduced me to things Buddhist and here we were again in the midst of Buddhist influenced American art.

The other special encounter at the Guggenheim was an exhibition by the Hugo Boss 2008 Prize Winner  Emily Jacir  - two installations that address the October 1972 assassination of Palestinian intellectual Wael Zuaiter in Rome by Israeli secret service agents following on from the deadly kidnapping of Israeli athletes by the Palestinian militant group Balc September at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

After Guggenheim we walk down Fifth Avenue till we come to the Plaza Hotel and head inside for a late afternoon drink.  We then decide to head back to our apartment but outside the Plaza we spot the Paris Cinema which has a screening of The Reader in a hour's time.  So to bide our time we head down Fifth looking into shops until we reach the the Rockefeller Centre where we watch skaters on the rink

  and read John D Rockefeller's inspiring words carved into stone with gold leaf paint:

I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession a duty.

I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

I believe in the dignity of labour, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

I believe that thrift is essential to well ordered living and that economy is a prime requisit of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.

I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.

I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond; that character - not wealth or power or position - is of supreme worth. 

I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.

I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individual's highest fulfilment, greatest happiness, and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.

I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.

And so inspired by Rockefeller we head back to Paris Cinema to watch The Reader and wonder how many in the audience are Jewish - quite a few it turns out...the first time laughter erupts is towards the end of the film when Lena Olin's character in her exquisite New York apartment comments "there are Jewish organisations for everything".

And as we leave the cinema we wonder whether we just might have walked somewhere nearby the apartment featured in The Reader having left the Emily Jacir exhibition at the Guggenheim having consumed the gold leaf of Lee Byars and the golden words of Rockefeller that love is the greatest thing in the world....  

Pizza on 6th avenue, a short walk to the Time Warner Centre and then the A line back down to 33rd and bed - a good day.

   

They Don't Know What's Going To Hit Them!

Ever since the financial crisis became a harsh reality, I've heard many people (invariably older - most 50 yrs plus) comment along the lines that young people don't know what's going to hit them. 

The story goes - and correctly so - that most young people today have only known times of economic growth and opportunity.  But tnen what follows next is the interesting bit. 

The Concerned are genuinely worried for young people that this will be an especially tough time for them on top of all the challenges that young people currently face.  They remind that despite (or some would even argue because of) the economic growth youth mental health issues are one of our biggest societal challenges today.  In a given year as many as 1 in 4 young people will suffer from a recognised mental illness and this is not just about having a couple of bad days.  While suicide rates have declined for young people over the past decade in many Western countries, in recent years the decline has pretty well plateaued out.   Australia is one of the stand out exceptions in that suicide rates are now down by 56% since their 1997 peak - hopefully the rates will continue to decline in Australia but we can't take this for granted in light of the current situation.

The Resenters see the economic crisis with a degree of glee in that "young people with their unrealistic expectations will finally get their comeuppance!" - a youth directed schadenfreund if you like.  These are people who felt Gen Y had it far too easy - funny thing is that they are often the parents and role models of the young people they complain about.  "A good war would sort them out".

The Resilients are a third group of people who are upbeat that young people today will actually do OK in the current crisis.  They believe that through their seamless integration with technology many young people understand both the interconnectedness and impermance of things - many of them have seen their parents' marriages end in divorce and so don't take things for granted and have an ability to weather the storm and adapt in the way that previous generations did not.

As the layoffs increase I'm curious to know whether or not age will be a consideration in who gets laid off.

But as to how young people will deal with the economic crisis I don't have a crystal ball.  What I do know however is that those who believe in young people's ability to deal with adversity will be the ones who contribute the tools and resources for young people to get through the tough times that are ahead of us all.  

From Making A Difference to Being of Service

Earlier this year Inspire held its first Appreciative Inquiry Summit in Sydney with some of our US colleagues and supporters joining us.  It was a pretty amazing affair as we shifted from being a tribal team of staff to a broad-based community with a range of supporters - it somehow made our ambition to make a global contribution to young people's mental health and wellbeing much more possible.

In the lead up to the summit we did work around our values using the work of Richard Barrett and synthesised by Lisa Doig and others who had worked with McKinsey.  This included mapping our organisational values - both stated and actual - alongside our personal aspirational values.  To our relief there was fair consistency across all which was very reaffirming.

The values were mapped against Maslow's hierarchy of needs with the highest two levels being Making a Difference and then Being of Service at the peak.  It is interesting that the highest value is around being rather than doing although of course being of service might involve doing but it doesn't start with the action - or the urge to act.  I feel this is a very important thing for us to appreciate as we look to take the impact of our programs global while also building a coherent international network with distributed  leadership.  Making a difference has the notion of putting my view of what needs to be done to the fore whereas being of service calls on you to do whatever is appropriate in a given situation.  The former, while noble, carries with it vestiges of ego wheras true genuine service is devoid of ego - very easy to say but a much bigger challenge to embody.