Changing Minds

Governance board opportunity 💡

Te Ata is recruiting new board members and we're helping to spread the word.

Te Ata is a peer-led community wellbeing centre that believes people with lived experience bring invaluable insight, compassion and leadership. Their invitation says they are "looking for new board members who share our commitment to supporting the wellbeing of our West Auckland community. As a board member, you'll help guide the future of Te Ata, support our vision and values, and ensure our services continue to make a positive difference in people's lives. If you're passionate about community, recovery, connection and creating opportunities for others, we'd love to hear from you. These are voluntary positions. Lived experience preferred."

If interested, please contact Daniel Sutton 👉 [email protected]

Visit Te Ata's website 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/uvglurssxv

The wonderful Ivan Yeo has written another beautiful and thought-provoking piece on his blog.

This one is about intergenerational stories and how they can be told to either stimulate growth or restrict to more of the same.

We're struck how this embodies the Lived Experience community. Ivan talked about those who took the limitations or restrictions or boundaries they were given and used them to open doors for others.

Lived Experience storytelling allows for understanding to grow, and to enable both hope and change for this generation and those to come.

You can read Ivan's powerful words here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/mlhvmxywmi

🔶Election 2026🔶

As we wait for the responses from the political parties to our community letter, we continue to be motivated by what we've heard from you.

This quote highlights what can be overlooked - we often use stigma and discrimination in the same sentence, but the impact of those things include disempowerment, which carries so much weight.

Disempowerment feeds those feelings of being less than or unworthy or broken. As this community member so powerfully says - "Many people experience stigma and disempowerment within services. A rights-based, trauma-informed, culturally safe system, with lived experience embedded in design and delivery, is essential. People are not broken - the system needs to change."

You can read the community responses and our letter to MPs here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/fiomaaokcy

Changing Minds supports Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission's call for the Government to honour the recommendations of the Abuse in Care Inquiry.

Two years since the release of the Inquiry recommendations, only a small number have been committed to. We can show support for the more than 200,000 Survivors of abuse in state and faith-based institutions and help to ensure that the Government honour their promises. We hear in our consultations and mahi a desire from community to see these promises upheld, and beyond the impact on Survivors and their families, there is a sense that keeping and prioritising these promises would support wider trust in services and supports from community.

Te Kāhui Tika Tangata | the Human Rights Commission has resources to help us write letters to our local MPs, share social media posts, and advice for messaging.

Visit the website for more info 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/lcbmvidrhj

Kia ora e te whānau ❤️

The Changing Minds' tīma are in planning mode for the next two days, hunkered down with post-it notes, deep kōrero, and Shiona's delicious baking. We'll emerge the other side with fresh ideas and a renewed plan for the days and months ahead, to serve community as best as we possibly can.

For support, check out our resources page 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/qqhxuocbag or call 1737 to talk to someone.

🔶Election 2026🔶

We've collated a community letter and sent it to the political parties to find out how they're going to serve the Lived Experience community if they are elected to govern. We're now awaiting responses, which we will share with you as they arrive.

Thank you so much to everyone who shared their thoughts in the survey. While we couldn't include them all in the letter (it would've been 30 pages long!), we will continue to share your insights through our social media, on our website, and monthly newsletters. You can read the community responses and our letter to MPs here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/fiomaaokcy

Earlier this week, the Government announced $10 million over the next four years for telehealth and the development of AI tools.

While funding is welcome, our kōrero with community would highlight that the direction of funding is critical. In the first instance, this means a focus on prevention and education, rather than the "ambulance at the bottom of the cliff."

Telehealth and AI cannot become the default options because they're supposedly convenient or cost-effective. We have heard that “there is a place for telehealth and the digital support. But if someone's really struggling or things are escalating, I don't think that's necessarily going to resolve their challenges or help them on their journey to recovery.”

There is no replacement for in-person connection. We vote for humans over robots ❤️

You can read the article here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/jsbghacaob

Kia ora community. We need your help to update our resources 😄

Specifically, we want to make sure our list of self-referral services are up-to-date. This resource ensures we can support community members seeking support that they can action themselves, without needing to ask for their GPs permission, to the best of our abilities.

So we want to ask: what's worked for you? Anyone who has utilised self-referral support in their wellbeing recovery journey, what spaces or organisations have done their job well? Where have you felt safe? Where have you felt well supported? If a friend asked you, "I'm struggling with this, where should I go?" Who would you recommend?

One of the ways we support community is by sharing information about services and supports that feel safe, trustworthy, and come recommended straight from community members who have been there and know the facts. With your help, we can make sure we provide the best, up-to-date information and can point community in the right directions.

To add to this resource, fill out our quick survey here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/qksbypycbf

New 'Take It From Us' podcast episode with the wonderful Heidi McIlroy 🎙️

Heidi teaches kids who can't make it into a regular classroom. They're too anxious, struggling with their mental health, autistic - kids who carry shame because they think they're broken.

She gets it because she's been there. Years of agoraphobia, hiding it, convinced something was wrong with her.

So she created a book called "This Is How It Feels". It's not advice or expert opinions. It's just real people explaining what their struggles actually feel like - a kid with anxiety, someone who self-harms, what withdrawal feels like, what panic looks like.

The impact has been real. Parents reading it and finally understanding their kids. Teachers using it. Young people picking it up and going, "Yes, that's what I'm trying to say."

🎧 Hear Heidi's powerful story on Take It From Us with Kent Johns from Thursday 9 July.

🔗 Listen here ▶️ https://f.mtr.cool/rxarmbdpxx
📱 Or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can pick up a copy of Heidi's amazing book here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/ljtrmedhcj