Selena had been invited to provide support to 30 women and children who had travelled from their remote properties across the Far North for a week long gathering.

Over the next few years, Selena and a group of committed volunteers regularly connected with these families, providing care and support, building trusted relationships and learning bush culture.

A unique mental health model evolved - what we now call the Outback Futures Community Facilitation Model – to create long term change in mental health and wellbeing outcomes for outback kids, families and communities. The model is co-designed by the bush, for the bush.

As Outback Futures has grown, ongoing community consultation and co-design has shaped the essence of this model, and resulted in our success working together with remote Queensland communities.

Since Outback Futures officially began in 2013, our team has established trusted relationships with remote communities, predominantly in the Greater Western Queensland regions.

As our presence in these communities has grown, so has the willingness of people to access mental health and wellbeing support. Our experience is that referral rates, including self-referral, for mental health issues increase once trusted relationships are established and people have a positive experience of service provision.

Our mission is to nurture and empower the outback by renewing hope, building resilience and strengthening community.

We want to see rural and remote communities across Australia equipped with the confidence and tools to identify and address their own mental health and wellbeing challenges, both now and for the long term.

Click here to see a snapshot of our first 10 years