Engage Aotearoa

Tag Archives: Cool To Korero

Have You Seen the Target Zero Documentary Yet? Watch Online

June 19, 2015 3:25 pm ⋅

A very special documentary aired on Maori Television on the 15th of June. Target Zero highlights the need for suicide prevention strategies in NZ, Key to Life Charitable Trust‘s grassroots work across NZ, what gets people through and the solutions whanau and youth themselves are enacting in their schools and towns. IMG_0168

 

Engage Aotearoa would like to congratulate Mike King, Jo Methven, Tai Tupou and the rest of the Key to Life team on  the messages they have brought together in Target Zero. This is an inspiring example of what can come about when genuine people, with genuine passion, collaborate with their communities to fill community needs.

Watch Target Zero online here and share it on social media.

These are the kinds of ideas we need to be spreading.

Posted in: Documentary, Online Resources, Parents and Parenting, Recovery Stories, Service-User Movement, Social Change, Suicide Prevention/Support, Young People and Youth Issues ⋅ Tagged: , , , , ,

Mike King’s Korero Heads to Taupo and Reporoa | 20-21 February 2014

February 17, 2014 12:34 pm ⋅

Community Korero

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. 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. Hear about the things he learnt from the hard times and how all those mistakes were blessings in disguise. Ask the questions you have always wanted to ask – Mike is joined by Tai Tupou for a Q & A session at the end of the talk. Connect with other community members who care. Plus heaps of useful resources to take away for later. Community Korero is open to all members of the community and is suitable for early teens to older adults. Mental-health workers, teachers, parents and town-planners are especially encouraged to attend this session.

Community Korero Dates

  • Thur 20 Feb 2014 | Venue: Taupo Nui a Tia College Hall, Taupo | Time: 7.00 pm
  • Fri 21 Feb 2014 | Venue: Reporoa Community Hall, Reporoa | Time 10.00 am – 12.00 pm
  • Fri 21 Feb 2014 | Venue: Te Toke Road Marae, Taupo | Time: 7.00 pm – 8.30 pm

Cool to Korero: School Sessions

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 shares tips on how to deal with bullies and also why bullies do what they do. Most of all, he speaks about why it is important to talk rather than have conversations with yourself.  Tai Tupou joins Mike for a Q&A session that gives students a chance to ask whatever they want of Mike and Tai. And anyone who needs support straight away will have the opportunity for some one-on-one time at the end. The 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.

Cool to Korero Dates

  • 20 February 2014 
    • Venue: Taupo Nui a Tia College, Taupo
    • Time: 9 am
  • 20 February 2014
    • Venue: Tauhara College, Taupo
    • Time: 1 pm
  • 21 February 2014 
    • Venue: Reporoa College, Reporoa
Posted in: Families/Whanau, Parents and Parenting, Social Change, Suicide Prevention/Support, Young People and Youth Issues ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Mike King Korero Heads to Taranaki Region in September

August 11, 2013 9:25 pm ⋅

Mike King and Tai Tupou are hitting the road again in September to encourage schools and communities to make it cool to korero about the tough stuff, so we all make it through.

  • 10 September, 1 pm, Cool to Korero, Francis Douglas College, New Plymouth
  • 10 September, 7:30 pm, Community Korero, War Memorial Hall, Stratford
  • 11 September, 7:30 pm, Community Korero, Waves Building, New Plymouth
  • 11 September, 12:30 am, Cool to Korero for Hawera High and Patea Area School, The Hub, Hawera
  • 12 September, 11:30 am, Combined Community Cool to Korero, Opunake College, Opunake

While the team at Key to Life are getting ready to hit the road, the team at Engage Aotearoa will be adding recovery resources from each of these towns to The Community Resources Directory, so they can be delivered to those who need them when the team hits the ground in each of their locations across Taranaki. If you know of any services in the Taranaki region you think others would find useful, email them in.

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

Mike King Korero Heads to Rotorua 2-3 July 2013

June 27, 2013 12:05 pm ⋅

Mike King of The Nutters Club and Key to Life Charitable Trust is joined by Tai Tupou next week as they stop off in Rotorua on their way to Tokoroa as part of Key to Life and Engage Aotearoa’s Korero project.

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. 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 communities to come together and explore how to support our youth and each other to survive and thrive.

  • Tues 2 July 2013 |Venue: Sunset Primary School, Rotorua | Time: 6 – 8 pm

In Cool to Korero, school students get to spend some quality time with Mike and Tai as they talk about how they 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 shares tips on how to deal with bullies and also why bullies do what they do. The main point is that struggles and hardship are part of life but if we make it cool to korero, seek support and hold on to an attitude of hope, we can get through anything and go on to thrive.

  • 2 July 2013
    • Session 1 Venue: Rotorua Girls High, 11:30 am
    • Session 2 Venue: Sunset Heights Primary School, Rotorua
    • Session 3 Venue: Western Heights School, Rotorua
  • 3 July 2013 
    • Session 1 Venue: Rotorua Boys High School
    • Session 2 Venue: Rotorua Intermediate, 1:00 pm

Posters for Upcoming and Past Korero Events

[slideshow_deploy id=’4793′]

 

Posted in: Community Participation, Entertainment and Creativity, Families/Whanau, Parents and Parenting, Service-User Movement, Social Change, Suicide Prevention/Support, Young People and Youth Issues ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

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.

CoolToKoreroPoster_Kawakawa_V1

CommunityKoreroPoster_Kawakawa_V2

 

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: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

PamapuriaPrimarySchool

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)

CoolToKoreroPosterV1

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: , , , , ,