At Third Culture Minds, we are passionate about changing the narrative around mental health for young people from migrant & refugee backgrounds. We’re pleased about the progress New Zealand society has made in more openly discussing mental health. But, we're worried that this progress does not seem to have taken into account the unique perspectives & needs of young people from our communities.
We're working to change this. But achieving this is a big task, and requires changes to our mental health policies, services, funding, & changes to how we ourselves talk about mental health. Therefore our work has a number of strands, check them out below.
Many of the mental health services & resources in New Zealand are not meeting the needs of third culture kids. To support positive mental health for our young people, this needs to be addressed urgently.
Changing the narrative means speaking for ourselves. At Third Culture Minds we are passionate about ensuring that young people have a space at the table, an opportunity to speak for themselves and to let decision makers know what will make a difference for them.
While this seems obvious, letting young people speak for themselves is often overlooked. We advocate our decision & policy makers, and our healthcare providers to ensure there is a space at the table for us. We do not believe change can happen without us at the table.
If you want to get involved in advocating for better outcomes, email us at: info@thirdcultureminds.org.nz
At Third Culture Minds we believe in the power of direct, face-to-face engagement.
We run workshops with young people from refugee & migrant backgrounds across New Zealand.
These workshops focus on:
If you’d like to book a workshop delivered to your organisation or community, let us know at: info@thirdcutureminds.org.nz
Storytelling is powerful. We believe in the power of telling your own story and hearing the stories of people who have similar life experiences to you.
We want to give more young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds the opportunity to tell their own story, on their own terms. This is why a core part of our work involves creating content, including videos, articles, podcasts and more. This content is crucial to broadening the conversation on mental health and well being to include the experiences of third culture kids.
We work with the wider media and a range of creative stakeholders to produce highly engaging and relevant content covering the third culture kids experience. Check out our content section for more of our videos, articles and podcasts.
If you have a story to share, we'd love to hear from you at: info@thirdcultureminds.org.nz
Having a safe place to talk is crucial. We know how powerful it is to be able to express yourself to someone who understands what it is like to be a third culture kid.
We are lucky enough to be connected to a diverse range of third culture kids across New Zealand. We want to join our tribe and connect you to one another.
This work is in early stages of development and we want your input (and help!) to establish our peer to peer support network.
We'd love to hear your ideas – share it to: info@thirdcultureminds.org.nz
Your contributions enable us to carry out our work to change the lives of those who need it the most. We appreciate all your support.