Young people are being urged to warm up their night by diving headlong into an evening of entertainment and discussion for the inaugural Hot Topics event.
Hot Topics is a committee of young people passionate about issues that are important to young people living in Melbourne’s west.
Their first event will focus on mental health, particularly among young migrant and young refugee people.
Committee member Julia Coscolluela said mental health was not talked about enough.
“The event is about mental health, which is a very broad topic, but we’re specifically targeting mental health among people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds,” she said.
“So we’ll be talking about things like settlement issues and immigration, it’s something that is close to us.”
The evening will feature spoken word, film, music and a panel discussion.
Committee member Shrnyaa Sharma said the organisers brainstormed about the idea for quite a while before combining the ideas of mental health, immigration and identity.
“We wanted to explore things like culture shock,” she said.
“It’s just more relatable when it’s coming from young people, if it’s something from other young people it feels like it will be more relevant.”
Doors open 4pm for a 4.30pm start and the event includes dinner, at Phoenix Youth Centre, 72 Buckley Street, Footscray.
Register via Eventbrite.
