Upper Hunter Hub Positive Education Initiative: Where There's A Will

Where there’s a Will is a community-led initiative based in the Upper Hunter that exists to improve mental health and wellbeing through prevention-focused education in schools, early learning, and the wider community.

Author/ source: PESA, Where There's a Will, Pauline Carrigan, Australian Schools Plus

Last updated: 23/01/2017

Visit Where There's A Will website

Upper Hunter Hub Positive Education Initiative: Where There's A Will

In 2016, PESA was contacted by Where There’s a Will, to request our support in rolling out a community-wide Positive Education initiative across the Upper Hunter region in NSW.

Where There’s a Will is a not for profit charity, established in 2016 by the Carrigan family, who were spurred into action after tragically losing 24 year-old son and brother Will Carrigan to suicide on Christmas Day 2015. Where There’s A Will aims to address significant mental health issues faced by their community by supporting schools to build positive learning environments that embed the teaching of resilience and wellbeing in both their curricula and culture. It brings together schools, educators, families, and local organisations to embed positive education, resilience-building, and wellbeing science into everyday practice. The initiative aims to create a shared language and consistent approach to wellbeing across an entire community, supporting children and young people to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally from early learning through to secondary school and beyond.

PESA was delighted to be invited to participate in a community education forum, along with respected academic Dr Toni Noble, held in Scone in late November 2016, to enable the community to learn more about Positive Education and the science behind Positive Psychology. Approximately 500 community members attended the event, ranging from parents and teachers, to grandparents, business owners and local farmers; and an additional 5,000 people watched the live Facebook stream.

The panel members – Mr Simon Murray (PESA Chair and Headmaster, St Peter’s College Adelaide), Dr Mathew White PhD (Director of Wellbeing and Positive Education, St Peter’s College Adelaide), Dr Toni Noble PhD (Adjunct Professor Institute of Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University and co-founder of BounceBack!), and Mr Warren Symonds (Principal, Mt Barker High School South Australia) – were thrilled to witness the enthusiasm across the entire community to take decisive action to improve the wellbeing of their young people.

The initiative has been further developed over 2017, with the intention of rolling out whole-school Positive Education to a regional hub of 22 schools. This will be the first time a community-led Positive Education initiative has been implemented at scale in Australia.

The program will be funded in part by Philanthropy, in conjunction with Australian Schools Plus, and Where There’s A Will, which all share the common goal of increasing access to the benefits of Positive Education to disadvantaged schools nationally.

An Appreciative Inquiry Summit was convened in late July 2017, facilitated by expert Michelle McQuaid. This brought together over 120 teachers, students, school leaders, academics, council representatives, and diverse community members to form strategies around the objective of “Building Pathways to Help Young People Flourish Across our Schools and Communities”.

The full report following on from the summit is available below. The Carrigan family’s story was covered by the ABC’s 7.30 Report, once in January and again in September of 2017.

PESA is excited to be involved in this ground-breaking initiative and we hope that this will be the first of many community-led Positive Education regional hub roll-outs.

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