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Tag Archives: Mike King

Mike King Korero Goes to Kawakawa 7 May 2013

April 13, 2013 6:47 pm ⋅

Engage Aotearoa and Key to Life Charitable Trust will be taking the Mike King Korero to Kawakawa on the 7th of May for two sessions at Bay of Islands College. In the morning, students at Bay of Islands College will get the chance to take part in the Cool to Korero seminar that aims to encourage students to talk about their problems with people they trust before things get on top of them. In the evening, community members will be able to take part in the Community Korero to discuss how to help prevent suicide in their town.

Click here to read about the Whangarei Community Korero that took place on the 9th of April and made the front page of the Northern Advocate.

Click here to check out photos and feedback from the Whangarei Korero.

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Posted in: Community Participation, Engage Updates, Families/Whanau, Men, News, Older People and Aging, Parents and Parenting, People with Disabilities, Personal Development Tools, Professional Development, Recovery Stories, Service-User Movement, Social Change, Suicide Prevention/Support, Women, Young People and Youth Issues ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mike King Korero to Get Whangarei Talking About Suicide

March 31, 2013 9:29 pm ⋅

Media Release: Engage Aotearoa & The Key to Life Charitable Trust

For Immediate Release: 01/04/2013 | Updated 5/04/2013
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Mike King’s Community Korero will hit Whangarei from the 8th to the 9th of April to throw solutions at the problem of suicide, with a series of public seminars. NZ has one of the highest suicide rates in the developed world, especially among older people and youth. Estimates suggest that 1 in 6 New Zealanders have suicidal thoughts every year. As Mike King puts it “The Korero encourages people to help fight suicide by talking and supporting each other rather than taking their own lives. Silence is not the solution.” Rather than simply telling people they need to talk, King leads by example; Through sharing his own story, he opens the way for community members to share theirs.

CommunityKoreroPosterWhangareiV5

In the Community Korero, comedian Mike King gets straight up about his battle with depression, addiction and his ongoing journey back to recovery, including the mistakes he made along the way. This is a not-to-be-missed chance for communities to come together and explore how to support our youth and each other to survive and thrive. People can ask the questions they have always wanted to ask during a Q & A session at the end of the talk where Mike is joined by Engage Aotearoa service director Miriam Larsen-Barr, who also has a lived experience of recovery from being suicidal. Together they are an example of how the issue of suicide can affect anyone, Pakeha and Maori, men and women, young people and adults.

The Q & A is a chance for local professionals, parents, teachers and people with personal experience of these issues to discuss how we as individuals and communities can use our experiences to prevent suicide. Those with questions can ask them and those with knowledge can share it. Feedback from the Community Korero in Kaitaia included comments like “loved it”, “amazing evening, Mike opening his heart and bringing this community together” and “we should have another one I reckon.”

The initiative hopes to reach local schools in Whangarei in the future, through Cool to Korero, a special student-centred session that gives kids a chance to seek help and empowers youth to lead the way in creating supportive school and community environments. At least 20 students came forward to seek help for active suicidal thoughts after the Kaitaia and Taipa talks and were linked in with support.

Students commented “It was mint. I like how you approached the subject like not too serious and yeah, shot oi!”, “Thank you so much, words don’t suffice” and “you should come back mah gee!” Teachers commented “Thank you for giving our rangatahi options to stand up, speak up and seek help” and “I BET you have saved lives today.”

Community Korero is open to the public and a resource table provides plenty of take-home information about everything from suicidal thoughts and supporting someone who is suicidal to recovery and community services.  Local services are welcome to bring information to share with the community too – people can simply bring their materials along and add them to the table.

Larsen-Barr comments “suicide is a really hard issue in our communities. There are so many people who are prepared to help and who are already helping.  When our powers combine, I truly believe great things will happen. But first, we need to talk about it. Mike’s Korero creates a space to do that.”

For more information visit www.engagenz.co.nz and click on Mike King Talks.

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Posted in: Community Participation, Engage Updates, Families/Whanau, News, Older People and Aging, Parents and Parenting, Rainbow / LGBTQI+ Community, Recovery Stories, Service-User Movement, Social Change, Suicide Prevention/Support, Young People and Youth Issues ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Cool to Korero Kaitaia Trip a Success

March 11, 2013 1:01 am ⋅

Mike King of The Key to Life Charitable Trust and The Nutters Club traveled to Kaitaia with Engage Aotearoa from the 4th to the 6th of March to throw solutions at suicide and help encourage people to talk more.

After a powhiri at Te Runanga o te Rarawa, major sponsors of the initiative, the pair visited Taipa Area School and presented Its Cool to Korero to 150 senior school students and community members.

That evening, over 90 members of the Far North community attended Mike King’s Community Korero, where Mike and Miriam fielded questions from the crowd and got everyone talking about how they can make a difference or get through themselves.

The next day, all 800+ students at Kaitaia College and 60 students from neighbouring Aniwaniwa College took part in the Cool to Korero talk, split across two, packed-to-capacity 2-hour sessions in the school hall. Mike’s presentation had participants laughing their way into this sensitive subject and inspired to do more.

At each seminar, the audience was asked to stand if they ‘would do anything they could to stop one person from committing suicide.’ Picture entire rooms of hundreds standing to show their support.

Each school session provided an opportunity for students to have one-on-one time with Mike and/or Miriam and over 20 students were able to come forward to seek support. Take-away resources were available on Bullying, Heartbreak, Depression, Alcohol and Drugs, Suicide, Mental-Health Problems, Recovery, Community Resources and more.

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Each school was left with a stack of Skylight teacher resources and library books including It Happened to Me: A Teen’s Guide to Overcoming Sexual Abuse; The Anger Toolbox; Something Has Happened Activity Book for Children; The Tough Stuff Activity Book for Children; A Terrible Thing Happened storybook for Children; Creative Coping Skills for Children; Bully Blocking and Emotional Support through Arts and Crafts Activities.

After the last Kaitaia College session on the 6th of March, before they began the long drive back to Auckland, Miriam and Mike made a special after-school visit to Pamapuria Primary (pictured here) with a box of Skylight books for the kids who have experienced trauma there recently .  

So that’s 2 days and over 1 000 people who are ready to lead the changes needed to reach the zero suicide rate that is Key to Life Charitable Trust’s goal and make recovery easier, just like Engage Aotearoa is trying to do.

Discussions are underway to bring the talk to other towns in the Far North in the coming months. Engage Aotearoa has provided schools with follow-up activities for their classrooms and evaluations are currently underway.

Many thanks to Mike King of The Key to Life Charitable Trust, Kevin, BJ, Paulette, Ellen and everybody at Te Runanga o Te Rarawa, Mental Health Commissioner Lynne Lane, Bice and co at Skylight, Ivan at the Mental Health Foundation of NZ, The Beachcomber, Fathers Against Suicide, Kaitaia College, Taipa Area School and all the other people who helped us to pull this together so quickly and so well.

More photo’s coming soon.

Posted in: Engage Updates, Suicide Prevention/Support, Young People and Youth Issues ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Mike King: Cool to Korero at Far North Schools 5 & 6 March 2013

March 2, 2013 3:14 pm ⋅

Engage Aotearoa and The Key to Life Charitable Trust have organised an opportunity for every high school student in and around Kaitaia to attend a special session with Mike King called Cool to Korero. The focus is on developing supportive school communities and a culture where it is okay to ask for help. The overall aim is to prevent further suicides in the Far North.

  • Taipa Area School, 1pm – 3pm, Tuesday 5th of March
    • Open to senior students and parents from surrounding schools by prior arrangement with Taipa Area School
  • Kaitaia College, Wednesday 6th of March
    • Open to year 9-13 students from surrounding schools by prior arrangement with Kaitaia College
    • Morning Session: 9 am – 11 am (For all year 9 and 10 students)
    • Afternoon Session: 11:25 am – 1:25 pm (For all year 11, 12 and 13 students)

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Many thanks to Mental Health Commissioner Lynne Lane, who heard of the project and arranged funding to allow Skylight to send boxes of resources to gift to the community.

Lane says, “It is important that everyone has a better understanding of how to develop the resilience to cope with the challenges that life holds. We also need to learn how to recognise when someone is struggling to cope with life and to know what to do to support them on the path to recovery.  It is important  to know the early signs of when someone is developing problems, so that they can get help and avoid becoming seriously unwell.  We are all much better informed about how to keep our hearts healthy and how to avoid having a “heart attack”  (healthy eating and exercise etc) and now we need to learn how to keep ourselves mentally well and what to do if someone we care about  is  having problems.”

Mike King’s Community Korero will take place at Te Ahu on Tuesday March 5th from 6 to 8 pm and is open to the whole community.

Read The Northern Advocate’s February 28th newspaper article here: An Audience with the King

Posted in: Parents and Parenting, Service-User Movement, Suicide Prevention/Support ⋅ Tagged: , , , , ,

Press Release: Details Confirmed for Mike King’s Community Korero and Kaitaia College Seminars

February 20, 2013 2:50 pm ⋅

Press Release: Engage Aotearoa & Key to Life Charitable Trust

For Immediate Release | 20 Feb 2013

Mike King Visits Kaitaia to Throw Solutions at Suicide 

Popular comedian and radio talk-show host Mike King will visit Kaitaia on the 5th and 6th of March for a series of seminars to reduce suicide in the Far North. On the evening of the 5th, King will lead a Community Korero at Te Ahu, accompanied by musician Ruia Aperahama (What’s the Time Mr Wolf, Southside of Bombay, Songs from the Inside). The following day, King and Aperahama will present two seminars for junior and senior students at Kaitaia College, called It’s Cool to Korero.

In It’s Cool to Korero, King will talk with Kaitaia College students about how he survived growing up. Mike’s is the story of a kid who wanted to fit in. It is about wanting to be part of the cool group but being 4’11 with buck teeth and big ears and needing a miracle to make it happen. Then one day he discovered he had a gift to make people laugh and he went from being bullied, to being liked and then many years later becoming a bully himself. Mike will share tips on how to deal with bullies and also why bullies do what they do. Most of all, he will speak about why it is important to talk rather than “have conversations with yourself.”  King says his main point is that “in life there will always be hurdles and heartbreak, but with perseverance, support and an attitude of hope, great things will happen.”

Mike King’s Community Korero will take place at Te Ahu from 6 – 8 pm on Tuesday the 5th of March. Entry is free and all are welcome. At the Community Korero, King will speak about his battle with depression, addiction and his ongoing journey back to recovery, including the mistakes he made along the way and the things that made a difference. He will discuss the things he learnt from the hard times and how all those mistakes were blessings in disguise. Both talks will be followed by an opportunity to ask questions and share strategies. This is a not-to-be-missed chance for the community to come together and explore how to support our rangatahi and each other to survive and thrive. Stacks of useful free resources will be available for community members to take away for later use. King says, “It is time to stop throwing negatives at the problem of suicide and time to start throwing positives at a solution!”

This initiative was organised by ex-Kaitaia College student, Miriam Larsen-Barr, who operates a mental-health promotion project called Engage Aotearoa and is currently completing a doctorate in clinical psychology in Auckland. Visiting home for the summer, Larsen-Barr was struck by how many sad stories and suicides had happened in the community in the past year.  Larsen-Barr says “I do all this work in other places to promote helpful ways of thinking about mental-health problems and make it easier to approach recovery. It seemed wrong to come home to holiday and not share those resources with the town that grew me.”

Mike King is best known for his role as a comedian and host of the Radio Live talk-show The Nutters Club. But King is also involved in The Key to Life Charitable Trust, an organisation that aims to achieve a zero suicide-rate in New Zealand.  King and Larsen-Barr met through their shared passion for preventing suicide (both have been working on projects to tell people’s recovery stories) and when King received the call to make a difference in Kaitaia, he leapt at the chance. King and Aperahama are both donating their time to the cause, The Mental-Health Foundation of NZ is providing additional take-home resources and local organisations Te Runanga o Te Rarawa and The Beachcomber Restaurant have sponsored the initiative to ensure it goes ahead.

More information can be found on Engage Aotearoa’s Mental-Health News and Events Blog at http://www.engagenz.co.nz/?p=3989

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Posted in: Addiction/Substance Abuse, Community Participation, Engage Updates, Families/Whanau, Maori Communities, Men, News, Older People and Aging, Parents and Parenting, People with Disabilities, Recovery Stories, Service-User Movement, Social Change, Suicide Prevention/Support, Women, Young People and Youth Issues ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mike King Visits Kaitaia to Inspire Solutions to Suicide: 5 & 6 March 2013

February 15, 2013 8:51 pm ⋅

Engage Aotearoa and The Key to Life Charitable Trust Present…

Mike King’s Community Korero

  • Venue: Te Ahu Centre
  • Date: Tuesday 5 March 2013
  • Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

It is time to stop throwing negatives at the problem of suicide and time to start throwing positives at a solution! Comedian Mike King gets straight up about his battle with depression, addiction and his ongoing journey back to recovery, including the mistakes he made along the way. Hear about the things he learnt from the hard times and how all those mistakes were blessings in disguise. This is a not-to-be-missed chance for the community to come together and explore how to support our youth and each other to survive and thrive. Plus heaps of useful resources to take away for later.

This important community event is followed by two student sessions the next day at Kaitaia College…

Mike King: It’s Cool to Korero

  • Date: 5 March 2013
    • Taipa Area School
  • Date: 6 March 2013 
    • Venue: Kaitaia College Hall
    • Session One – Years 9 & 10 at 9:00 am – 11:00 am
    • Session Two – Years 11, 12 & 13 at 11:25 – 1:25 pm

Students get to spend some quality time with Kiwi comedian Mike King as he talks about how he survived growing up. Mike’s is the story of a kid who wanted to fit in. It is about wanting to be part of the cool group but being 4’11 with buck teeth and big ears and needing a miracle to make it happen. Then one day he discovered he had a gift to make people laugh and he went from being bullied, to being liked and then many years later becoming a bully himself. Mike will share tips on how to deal with bullies and also why bullies do what they do. Most of all, he will speak about why it is important to talk rather than have conversations with yourself.  Mike’s main point is this… in life there will always be hurdles and heartbreak, but with perseverance, support and an attitude of hope, great things WILL happen.

Community Korero Poster Update 1 March

Posted in: Addiction/Substance Abuse, Community Participation, Engage Updates, Families/Whanau, Maori Communities, Men, Older People and Aging, Parents and Parenting, Service-User Movement, Social Change, Suicide Prevention/Support, Young People and Youth Issues ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , ,