CelebrateYOU

CelebrateYOU is an evidence-informed body confidence and self-esteem program designed for young people aged 12-18. Developed by The City of Greater Geelong’s Youth Community Development team, the program utilises resources and materials from The Butterfly Foundation, Reach Out, and the Dove Self-Esteem Project.

It has been created in response to the significant increase in body image-related concerns among young people in Australia. The purpose of CelebrateYOU is to address this need locally, providing young people within the Greater Geelong region with up-to-date information and resources on body image-related issues in a safe and supportive environment.

By doing so, it aims to dispel myths and misconceptions surrounding body image, emphasising that everybody, regardless of age, background, or gender identity, can face body image challenges.

Aims

The primary aims of CelebrateYOU are to:

• Promote body confidence and increase self-esteem in young people.
• Equip young people with strategies to build positive body image.
• Encourage media literacy surrounding professional and personal media platforms.
• Encourage help seeking if/when needed and provide information on local and national services that they can access.

Outcomes

• Increase awareness of appearance ideals and how pressures surrounding body image are manufactured and perpetuated throughout society.
• Develop self and body confidence that celebrates diversity and uniqueness.
• Reduce stigma surrounding body and appearance insecurities and debunk myths surrounding eating disorders.
• Build media literacy and promote resilience to assist young people in rejecting professional and social media images and messages that promote unhealthy appearance ideals.
• Encourage help seeking and support for self and others.

Target group

Students in years:

• 7 to 8 (juniors)
• 9 to 12 (seniors)

Session details

Flexible delivery options are available, ranging from 90-minute to 3-hour sessions.

Delivery requirements

• Group sizes between 12-50 students.
• All classes within a year level are required to complete the program over the duration of the year.
• Onsite delivery requires to data projector/TV screen and sound/audio equipment.
• Teaching/support staff must be present for all sessions.

Evaluation

Facilitated by the City's Youth staff at the conclusion of the workshop through the use of an end of workshop questionnaire.

Bookings

In preparation for 2025, we have identified a list of priority schools for our youth community development programs and the team is in the process of contacting them. The priority schools have been identified using the City of Greater Geelong’s Social Equity Framework (viewable here) and / or where they have had little to no engagement with our team over the past three years. Our aim is to ensure we are working equitably across The City to deliver high quality health and well-being programs to young people at schools that have previously not had access to our services.

Once we have assessed demand for our programs from our priority schools and inline with our capacity, we encourage expression of interests from additional schools for our programs.
Please email [email protected] to enquire about our programs. We will endeavour to have all our programs filled by early term 1 2025.