Parents urged to attend Stand Tall for teenagers' mental health

Parents, teachers, and community members in Tamworth are urged to attend the Stand Tall after-party to cut through barriers for more meaningful conversations with teenagers. The Stand Tall Parents and Community Evening will run for two hours from 7pm to 9pm on Friday, November 17 at the West Tamworth League Club. The event will be emcee'd by former Australian Rugby Union footballer Nick Farr-Jones and include four of the five speakers from the Stand Tall concert for teens being held earlier in the day. It's the second time the event has run in Tamworth, following on from a successful event in 2022. In 2023 Former gang member Tony Hoang will talk about how he rescued himself from a life of drugs and jail, while Bailey Seamer will talk about her very long walk to raise money for youth support. Danny and Leila Abdallah will explain how they forgave the drunk driver who killed three of their children, cancer-survivor Michael Crossland will be there, as will para-snowboarding champ Joany Badenhorst. One of Stand Tall's founders, Jeanine Treharne, said four of the speakers will be sharing highlights from what they said to students during the day. "It will be an opportunity to just listen to the encouragement the students have received and to be able to later discuss all the wonderful things they heard," Ms Treharne said. "So they can open up conversations about those different mental health issues or even have conversations about reigniting dreams in their lives." Ms Treharne, a parent of former teenagers herself, said children today are faced with a whole new set of challenges in social media, drugs and alcohol, with discouragement and a lack of hope added in the mix. "Our mission statement is; building hope in young lives," Ms Treharne said. She said teenagers will be shown how important it is to know that "everything will be okay", by hearing about the adversity others have gone through to live very fulfilling lives. "And there will be a very strong message about anti drugs, vaping, getting involved with the wrong crowd," Ms Treharne said. "Responses we receive after each event show us that thousands of young lives are turned around and indeed many are saved." The Stand Tall concert at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Events Centre (TRECC) has been sold-out with more than 4,500 students and teachers from across the region, including Tamworth, Gunnedah, Armidale, Scone, Manilla and Coonabarabran, expected at the 9.30am to 2pm event. Tickets for the parents' and community members' after-party information night are available for purchase online, and the day concert will be livestreamed for those unable to attend. Entertainment will be provided by singers Tinomatic and Jael Wena. READ ALSO: Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: