Student workshop

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Foundational training will be delivered interschool in the form of a half-day ​seminar with fun and interactive elements such as games and quizzes to ​engage students and deepen learning. The content will be delivered by the ​Centre’s mental health training experts and cover student mental health ​issues, how to recognise signs of distress, self-care, skills to support peers ​and the influence of social media on suicide.​
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By discussing suicide and self-harm, we aim to demystify what is widely perceived ​as a challenging or taboo topic, and make help-seeking more acceptable, ​accessible, and safe for those in distress or crisis. ​

Student-led Project & Network

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After successful completion of the school-based project, school teams will be invited to collaborate with one or more other teams to submit a proposal for an extended project, which will be scaled up in terms of project scope, target beneficiaries, and setting. The extended project aims to further expand student leaders’ capacity, teamwork and knowledge to contribute to mental health and suicide prevention in the wider community and beyond. ​

The Centre will provide each school with a start-up fund and expert consultation for the student leaders to design, implement and evaluate their student-led mental health projects. Through this process, students will gain experience in independently working on social innovation projects.

Inter-school Day Camp

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This training will equip students with essential skills in as student leader and gatekeeper, including active and empathic listening, recognizing signs of distress and crisis, knowing levels of risks, encouraging help-seeking, and responding to needy peers in safe and effective ways. ​

Students will be immersed in a full-day interactive day camp experience on HKU campus, to further develop in-depth understanding and practical skills in being mental health and leaders learnt from the workshop. It will be delivered in a variety of modes, including role-plays, games, experiential learning, collaborative exercises, and sharing from special guests.​

University Student Mentor​

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Each student leader will be part of a mentorship group led by a trained university student mentor, who can act as a positive role model to give advice on the student-led project and how to be a peer supporter, as well as giving general support and encouragement to the students. They will be active participants in the activities and Day Camp as well as the mentorship messaging group as the students finish training and apply their new learning into their school mental health leadership.

School Staff Workshop

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This workshop covers basic knowledge about mental health and suicide targeting school staff, and features sharing from schools that have successfully implemented student mental health leadership schemes. Staff will also be shown the advantages of applying a student-led model and new skills and ways to support and facilitate student leadership.

Graduation Ceremony

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A graduation ceremony will be held after the completion of the trainings and student-led projects, to acknowledge, thank and encourage all participants and schools for their personal and collective growth, as well as their achievements and contribution in serving their school communities. A Student Leader certificate will be issued to participants upon satisfactory completion of programme. The ceremony will also consist sharing’s of valuable experiences and lessons learnt, as well as the presentation of evaluation results. ​

After the end of the 2 years, a public presentation will be held to share the results and achievements of the participating schools, with the aim to increase awareness among the public and other school communities on the importance of student-leadership in mental health promotion and suicide prevention.​