The COVID-19 Pandemic and the lockdowns that followed created unprecedented circumstances which affected young people disproportionately. Peer relationships and rights of passage were replaced with online learning and time spent in isolation. There has never been a more important time for peer-relationships and co-design as the lived experienced of young people is unprecedented. Without first understanding their experience, supports would be speculative at best.
GROW Australia has been engaged in codesign and creating intentional communities for more than 60 years. We understand as perhaps few can, how to put the lived experience at the centre of the program co-design. This presentation will share insights into how intentional peer support works and how it is different to a clinical intervention. It will explore how friendship is the special key to mental health and offer a blueprint for communities to assist young people to move forward. There is much more to psychological recovery than psychological strategies. Centre to the Grow Program is knowledge that: “You alone can do it, but you can’t do it alone”.

3 x Key Learnings:
1. What is Intentional Peer Support?
2. Why is friendship central to recovery?
3. How do you recognise and build on lived experience?