Minus18 LGBTQIA+ educational inclusion workshops for students and teachers now on the Victorian Department of Education’s Schools Mental Health Menu

We are delighted to announce that Minus18's Educational LGBTQIA+ Inclusion Workshops for Students and Teachers have been included on the Victorian Department of Education’s Schools Mental Health Menu.

In short: Victorian schools, you can now book in Minus18 student workshops and teacher training via the Schools Mental Health Menu!

The Schools Mental Health Menu provides Victorian schools with opportunities to access evidence-based initiatives, training and education that promotes mental health and wellbeing. The goal: to enable and empower schools to intervene early to support students, and provides targeted support for individual students.

The Menu has been designed to give schools confidence in identifying (and booking, and funding) programs, staff and resources that will improve mental health and wellbeing outcomes for their students.

Victorian government schools will be able to access programs from the Menu through a $200 million Schools Mental Health Fund, with the fund acting as an ongoing source of funding for Victoria’s government schools, that schools can then use to book education, programs and training – including Minus18's!

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How were programs assessed and chosen for the menu?

The Department of Education undertook an extensive procurement process to identify quality providers of evidence-based student mental health and wellbeing programs for inclusion on the Menu. 

Each program on the Menu was externally assessed for how well they support student mental health. A key evaluation criterion was established to assess the effectiveness of the programs, with the assessment carried out by experts from the University of Melbourne.

Programs which scored highly demonstrated:

• Well-established program evaluation methodology
• Clearly articulated theory of change
• Referenced research to support the theory of change
• Had measured outcomes which were logically connected to the program’s aims and activities

Programs were categorised by their strength of evidence on a four-point scale. Minus18's School Workshops were assessed as being at a Level 3 for ‘Strength of Evidence’.

When will my Victorian government school have access to the funds?

The Fund was rolled out to all Victorian government rural and regional schools in Term 3, 2022 and will be in all Victorian government metropolitan schools by Term 1, 2024.

Find out more about the Schools Mental Health Menu

How can I check out the offerings available through the Menu?

Check them out here

How do I book a Minus18 LGBTQIA+ workshop using the funding our school has been provided?

Easy! Book yours directly via the enquiry form here on the Minus18 website.

If you'd like to read more about the Student Workshops and Teacher Training offerings, you can below:

• Student Workshops
• Teacher Training

How can I find out more info about specifics of the available Fund and Menu?

The Fund and Menu professional learning program and schedule is available on the Vic Department of Education ARC page