Caption for Instagram Post linked here: Thank you Mia Boonen for speaking at the Hobsons Bay rally and calling on our council to pass a strong motion in solidarity with Palestine. Mia is a local artist and educator and a mental health worker, as well as being Hobsons bay citizen of the year for 2023. Given that young people are resoundingly in favour of a free Palestine, Mia is here to urge local councillors to listen to their people and act with compassion. As a group member of Hobsons Bay 4 Paelstine, Mia’s hard work and dedication are imperative in keeping the focus and growing the campaign.🇵🇸

Tweet by YDAS Vic reads: "Whenever I feel like I'm burning out, I remind myself that by existing and by being happy, I am living a form of protest against a #ableist society." - Mia

Across 2020 to 2022, I worked with YDAS as a lived experience advisory board member, consulting on the Covid-19 pandemic and shaping work both with their organisation as well as with the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, the Department of Education and the Elgar Research Handbook on Disability Policy.

In 2022, Mia Boonen, Sinead Fernandes and Antoinette Tracey took the University of Melbourne to mediation, following their mishandling of sexual assault and harassment complaints in the prior year.
This work involved sharing experiences of abuse on the ABC, news.com.au and outlets across the nation. More than 1750 people signed an open letter penned by the trio demanding policy changes and a commitment to zero tolerance for abuse on campus. Ultimately, survivors received a written apology from the university that outlined the changes in policy, procedure and attitude towards survivors that had been enacted following the public campaign and open letter’s demands.

This episode of ‘Locked Down, Speaking Up!’ discusses young people in education and the arts have been some of the hardest hit by the pandemic. For young people who are still yet to set foot on their university’s campus, or who are waiting for their postponed shows to finally happen – what can you actually do in this situation that feels so out of control?

From the podcast: Speaking up today is Mia, who uses she/they pronouns. She's both a student and teacher of performing arts, so she’s a pretty solid expert on COVID’s impacts on young students and artists. If you’re looking for how can we do better by and with young students and creatives in this pandemic, or just want to know how to advocate for yourself, this is for you – Mia’s doing it, and she’s going to share what works, and what we should elbow bump goodbye.

Satellite Foundation is focused on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people where a family member, like a parent or sibling, has a mental illness or mental health challenges. The youth they support are aged 8-25 and live in Victoria, Australia. Programs are centred on the power of creativity in harnessing lived experience and promoting positive wellbeing outcomes.  CEO Rose Cuff and former Youth Coordinator Mia Boonen are the guests for this episode of ERMHA's podcast.

"One in four young people have a parent or guardian with a mental illness. Not all get the support they need"

This article by Georgia Lenton-Williams is an important step to raising the profile of this cohort of youth, and discusses the role of young people in mental health caring relationships and their experiences.

Staffed and coordinated by volunteers at Dramawerkz, ‘HQ’ is a project dedicated to giving the young people of Melbourne’s western suburbs and surrounds a home base for peer connection, creative expression and access to supports.

The idea is to host a space: a room dedicated to creative endeavours, peer support and community-building for young people in our local community. This space is interwoven with the local community centre and neighbourhood house, which embeds intergenerational learning and access to referrals and external supports within the “web of care” for young people who access our programs.

Once a week. I attend tea with “the local aunties” as I call them: a women’s discussion group where everyone’s encouraged to tell their stories, share advice and connect.
This has also built a bridge between the young people I work with and their elders: especially when the Aunties came to see my teen students performing at Melbourne Fringe Festival in October of 2024. Building intergenerational connection is a huge part of being in strong communities, and the Aunties have played a huge role in my life since meeting them.

Over the years, I’ve trained in peer and disability support work, with the sole intention of working with local young people to help them achieve their goals, potential, and ambitions. I’ve worked with young people on audition-prep, school tutoring, examination skills, handling high school stress and more.

This work is a huge part of the reason why I’m undertaking my Masters degree in Counselling: I noticed a huge gap in the available mental health supports for young people in my local area, and decided to do something about it.