INFOBUS October 4th 2018: Getting to know the ReachOut Online Community Team with Amirah
This month's Infobus continues with the theme of "get to know the ReachOut team" as we welcome our guest @Amirah-RO, our Online Community Manager at ReachOut! We are very excited to introduce our incredible manager and give you the opportunity to learn more about the team behind the scenes!
Next week, on Thursday the 4th of October from 7pm-9pm join us to get to know the ReachOut team with Amirah and talk all things forums, ReachOut, mental health, social work and life!
Amirah is an award-winning social worker and youth advocate with over ten years’ experience supporting ‘at-risk’ youth in Australia and abroad. She is also the Founder and Director of Taboo Talk, ‘A brave space for difficult conversations’. Amirah is a firm believer in self-expression and promotes the use of arts and culture as a means of empowerment. An example of this is her most recent collaboration with Bankstown Youth Development Service (BYDS) and Zeal Theatres in producing ‘To Be Honest’, a play showcasing the painstakingly honest and often untold stories of young people’s journeys overcoming homelessness, drug abuse, racism, family breakdown, and mental health issues.
Amirah spent most of 2017 travelling the world where she engaged with communities right around the globe, including Indonesia, Capetown, Tanzania, Dubai, Egypt, London and Germany. Having worked with thousands of young people across the world, and across sectors, Amirah feels confident in her ability to understand the diverse and complex needs of young people and how to best work with individuals to help realise their true potential. Amirah joined ReachOut Australia 8 months ago as Online Community Manager.
We are very excited to welcome Amirah as our guest! Do you have a question you would like to ask? Now is your chance to ask all the questions you have been wanting to ask and get to know Amirah better!
You can submit your questions for Amirah here and join the discussion Thursday night at 7pm 
We look forward to seeing you there!
If you would like to get a notification 30 mins before we start the infobus, high five this post!
Amended Infobus!
Hi everyone,
We are super excited for our infobus with Amirah! We are writing to let you know that the infobus will be happening on the Thursday 4th of October 2018 from 7-9pm.
We hope that you will be able to join us at this new time to say hi and learn more about @Amirah-RO
Hi community!
We are getting ready to welcome our guest @Amirah-RO in 20 mins to infobus tonight!
We have received lots of questions- can't wait to get started!
@litgym @mrmusic @scared01 @lokifish @gezellig @annabethxchase @Bee
I can see we have quite a few members online that might be interested in jumping into the infobus chat tonight @Zeldasmile @blair2019 @xxjessiieexx @redhead @LilyLe @keezeik
We are ready to get started! Welcome everyone to the first infobus of October!
Thank you so much to everyone joining us and a super warm welcome to @Amirah-RO!
Let's get started!
Let's start with a fun question:
Do you have any favourite hobbies?
I love dancing (mostly afro and jamaican dancehall) and going to live music shows and concerts! Hip hop, soul, R&B, all the good stuff!
Oh dancing is so great @Amirah-RO (Just a little embarrassing when someones sees you while your busting some WEIRD moves) 
Next question coming your way @Amirah-RO and I am super looking forward to hearing your response to this one
Why did you choose to have job around mental health?
With so much passion for what you do, I can imagine that there are a lot of different things you do with your time like the dancing and your youth work.
How do you stay motivated/What motivates you?
I've always had an interest in suicide prevention and really admired the way that RO approaches mental health and wellbeing by providing a space for young people to talk about their experiences in a non-judgemental and safe environment. So it's not so much that I was looking for a job in mental health specifically, I just thought RO was pretty incredible and their organisational values resonated with me.
All of my previous roles involved more holistic service delivery, so while mental health was a big part of it, it's been great focusing solely on mental health. I've learnt so much!
So beautifully said @Amirah-RO!
I really love this: "I just thought RO was pretty incredible and their organisational values resonated with me".
Can you tell us a bit more about the roles you have been in before coming to RO? You mentioned you were involved in more holistic service delivery - We'd love to hear more!
It's so great that you are so open to new things and are enjoying it @Amirah-RO 
Suicide prevention is so important I loved the ASIST program, do you think it's a good program to raise awareness?
@missep definitely! ASSIST is great. And I think it's so important that it's delivered to all sorts of people, not just those working in the field of mental health and service delivery. Have you done the training?
I totally agree! I did! It turns out that @gina-RO and I did the same training on the same day but we didn't know it at the time haha.
I felt like it broke a lot of stereotypes that people think of like if you talk about suicide then it increases the risk and that you can say things in your own way that can help the person.
I keep the little handheld guide in my wallet at all times just in case 🙂
Thank you @annabethxchase yes, I would say that the job kinda found me
@Jess1-RO Sure 🙂 I completed a Bachelor of Social Work in 2009 (a long long time ago!) and since then have worked across gov and Ngo, always with young people. I worked at Juvenile Justice, Youth Connections in casework and most recently managed a program for Youth off the Streets in South West Sydney. Most of my roles involved casework, I had a caseload of anywhere from 10-70 depending on the role! I really love working intensively with individuals rather than touch and go type support. One thing I love about casework is that you get to walk alongside clients through it all, whether it's homelessness, family breakdown, financial distress, mental health concerns etc... it really gives you insight which helps build empathy... and trust. Trust is so important.
I absolutely love working with young people because no matter what life throws at them or what hardships they face, they are resilient AF and I find that inspirational!
@scared01 Thank you! I appreciate your kind words 
what kind of dance did you used to do?
