Today at ECU, we recognised and raised awareness for RUOK Day. Asking someone if they are ok, and listening to their feelings and emotions with non-judgement and empathy can save a life.

This year’s theme was “Hear to Hear” , and to honour the theme we had a Pizza, Conversation, and Resilience event for all ECU students and staff. We have students and staff the social space. We gave students and staff the social space to chat with oen another, and enjoy food and drinks, and listen to an inspiring speech from Jake Ward and Graydon Perrett from The Empowered Project.

Jake spoke about resilience, overcoming feelings of fear and finding the courage to ask others the question “are you okay?”, as well as the courage to open up if asked this question. Various students approached Jake and Graydon afterwards, to share their feelings of not being ok to which they offered support and guidance.

The event was a huge success, seeing over 150 students attend and 20+ staff members. A huge thank you to everyone in the team who helped make this event what it was! A very special thank you to The Empowered Project for having such a huge impact on our students.

Hi Jake thanks for the connection, it was so manazing listening and you clearly have a passion for what you do. Just quietly I totally resonated with your story as my life followed a very similar path and I have spent the last 5 years rebuilding my life after losing everything. Life just keeps getting better and better and I wish you all the success and love in the world.

Just attended #RUOKDay and was blown away by the speaker’s transformative journey from a two-pack-a-day smoker to a 100km marathon runner. Hats off to Graydon Perrett and Jake ward #Empowered Project.

Being vulnerable is a strength because it allows us to be authentic and it empowers us to discern reality from illusion. Thanks to the speakers for sharing their experience with vulnerability in the past. The key takeaway from this event was ‘don’t make easy decisions, go for the hardest ones!’