......some edited notes prepared for a panel session at the Happiness And Its Causes Conference held in London 9-10 Oct 2008.....
French Philosopher Michel Foucault, in reference to the riots of May 68, spoke of “the indignity of speaking on behalf of others” so it is with some hesitation that I speak about the happiness and wellbeing of young people.
The Inspire Foundation www.inspire.org.au was established in Australia back in 1996. It was a direct and gut-felt response to Australia’s then escalating rates of youth suicide. We started with the simple idea of using the Internet to do something about youth suicide.
Thankfully the Australian youth suicide rate has declined by 56% since 1997. We believe Inspire, through its Australian-based service www.reachout.com, has made a meaningful contribution to that decline although we can't say by how much. At the same time, there remain unacceptable levels of unhappiness, self-harm and depression in our young people so our work has only just begun.
There was also a very personal impetus to the establishment of Inspire – the horrific suicide of a 21 year old young man – my cousin – on our family farm coupled with my own struggle to find meaning and significance after a career in public service that led to the highest political office in the land.
When we started off our work at Inspire, there was an element of our being a saviour, of riding in on a white horse to rescue young people. It was well-intentioned but disempowering. Thankfully it didn’t last too long as we opened our ears to both the voices of young people and the opinions of experts. We soon came to view every young person looking to engage with us as an individual human being looking for hope and inspiration.
The glass went from being nearly empty to three quarters full.
Yet today in Australia, in the UK, in Ireland and in many countries around the world there is a strong tendency to see young people as a glass only one quarter full or sadly even less than that.
There is a dangerous parental anxiety that permeates and sometimes dominates the public discourse about young people and their wellbeing – a discourse of predominantly old farts.
As a parent of an eight year old son and a fourteen year old daughter, I can understand this parental anxiety and there are fleeting moments where this anxiety can fill me with fear. But when fear begins to determine how we see the world we diminish ourselves, we diminish young people and suck in the oxygen that feeds life and builds hope.
At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that this anxiety is borne of a deep-seated care and concern for young people’s wellbeing which is, of course, a very good thing. But the failure to combine this care and concern with a deep-seated belief in young people’s inherent ability to deal with adversity is a hollow basis upon which to build public policy, programs or institutions dedicated to young people’s wellbeing.
If you don’t believe in someone’s ability to do something, there’s no way you will provide the resources or support to help them achieve it.
This parental anxiety is blinding us to the phenomenal opportunities which technology offers for the improvement of young people’s mental health and wellbeing. We are becoming obsessively paranoid about the dangers of the Internet –as real as they are - and thereby failing to see the unprecedented opportunities it offers to connect and foster hope with literally millions of young people. Fear blinds opportunity.
Safe, innovative and enlightened use of technology enables us to connect with, and offer hope to the 75% of young people whom traditional services could never reach - the hundreds of thousands of young Irish and Australians, the millions of young British and Americans and others around the world.
In harnessing the technology, as Charlie Leadbeater has brilliantly articulated, it is essential it be done BY and WITH people not TO and FOR them.
At Inspire, we look to place young people at the centre of everything we do. Young people drive our programs. Young people can veto our marketing materials and our staff selection. Young people write the stories of how they got through tough times – stories which break isolation and elicit hope in other young people. Young people taking control of their mental health and wellbeing inspire old people like me.
When you genuinely believe in someone’s ability to do amazing things and then you foster and resource that ability then it invariably manifests. Sometimes to just communicate your belief in someone is the most powerful gift you can give.
The so-called “crisis” in our young people is a crisis in our own failure to live meaningful and inspiring lives. If we saw more hope and meaning in our own lives then we would recognise it our young people and enthusiastically provide for it.
And if we could harness the extraordinary potential of the Internet and technology to extend hope and offer support then we might just come to know a glass that is overflowing.
In the words of one young woman we’ve had the privilege to connect with “a young person, once inspired, is changed forever”.
Over the coming years we are looking to make a global contribution to young people's mental health and wellbeing by harnessing the power of technology. We won't do that on our own but by connecting with those who share our sense of possibility. And in the long term, probably a good few lifetimes away, we have a dream for a world where every young person can stand up and say "I am happy".
At Inspire, we are always on the lookout for more fellow travellers on get on the bus, so if the above appeals in any way please come on board.
Much love, Jack
