Score Free Music Mentoring With Ocean Alley
If you are a young band or musician local to the Northern Beaches, you’re going to want to free your schedule on Saturday the 25th of March for One Eighty’s inaugural battle of the bands, Sounds Different.
Kicking off at 2 pm at the Avalon Bowling Club, the best young talent in the area will have the opportunity to showcase their sound, with the winning band scoring one on one music mentoring sessions with Ocean Alley plus more prizes on the day. If you have the musical talent of a pencil, don’t worry, there will still be plenty of food trucks and market stalls to keep you occupied, with all profits on the day going back into One Eighty organisation.
One Eighty is a youth mental health organisation based in the Sydney region offering free peer support for people aged 18-29 who might be going through a bit of a mental rough patch. Not all of us have access to a therapist on cue and too often than not we feel as though we’re being a burden by dumping all our shit onto our friends and family (even though any good mate would be happy to lend an ear). While One Eighty aren’t knocking the effectiveness of seeking professional help and talking to loved ones, the organisation recognises that any resource that can get people talking will be a benefit to the terrifying mental health statistics that loom over so many young Australians. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2020, suicide accounted for one-third of the deaths of people aged 15 to 24 years, and while the awareness of mental health has grown, it’s the opportunity to actually have conversations that allow us to release the burden of our struggles that we need to be focusing on.
The organisation holds weekly reoccurring Open Up Sessions four nights a week in Manly, Mona Vale, Surry Hills and an online zoom from 7-8:30 pm. All the sessions are peer-led so you’re not in a clinical setting feeling like a patient, but rather in a context that encourages authentic, open conversations to directly combat the conspiracy of silence around mental health struggles. It’s basically a quintessential Aussie D&M fast-tracking connection, a sense of belonging and self-esteem with evidence-based and prevention-focused guidance helping to flip a bad brain day into a better one.
For more information about One Eighty’s Open Up Sessions and to explore their wealth of resources available check out their website here. Otherwise if you’re a band looking to participate make sure you sign up by the 28th Feb at this link.
