After hours at The Mind Café in Narrabeen, the MoWaNa Safe Space welcomes the community with open arms.
MoWaNa, which stands for Mona Vale, Warriewood, Narrabeen, is a place to “drop-in” at night, talk about your mental health problems, and find an attentive listening ear.
In November 2021, Mel Kypri created the MoWaNa Facebook page as a way to deal with the mental health gap in the public system. Driven by her own suicide attempt in July of 2021, Mel noticed that there was nowhere to go in the local neighbourhood when people were struggling with mental health issues.
‘You talk to your parents, your family members, and they are quite judgemental only because they care so much,’ explains Mel. ‘I just wanted someone that I could just talk to and get it all out of my head. That’s the problem, people can’t get it out of their head and it festers.’
Since February of 2023, MoWaNa has been operating out of the Mind Cafe on Friday, Saturady and Sunday nights. Inside, MoWaNa volunteers have tea, coffee and biscuits available, board games and quiet activity, and present a safe space to chat. All volunteers have lived experience, either attempting suicide themselves, having mental health problems, living in a domestic violence situation, or have close family and friends having experienced these issues. Volunteers are all trained in suicide prevention, mental health first aid, and take the Domestic Violence Active Bystander course.
‘When someone walks in the door, one of us will greet them and ask them why they are there, take them aside, sit down with them, find out more about their story, and listen,’ says Mel. ‘To listen is the most important part.’
MoWaNa will often direct those who wander in on who to speak to, and what services to contact, about their specific challenges.
Community members who visit MoWaNa vary in age, from young teens to the elderly. Often, Mel outlines, people come in between their formal mental health psychology, psychiatry, or counselling sessions to fill the gap.
On top of their drop in safe space, MoWaNa has “Coffee With Kindness” out of the Mind Café on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings. Every Wednesday night during the school term, MoWaNa do “Wellness Wednesday” from the Tram Shed, where they host activities like Taichi, yoga, sound healing, breath work, and practical philosophy, among others.
In January, MoWaNa received a $50,000 grant from the State Government to train another 55 volunteers.
‘That tells me the state government sees value in what we are doing,’ says Mel. ‘We want everyone to know on the Northern Beaches there is a safe space they can go. Doesn’t matter if it’s a kid running away from someone that wants to hurt them, or a women running from a domestic violence situation, we can lock the door and keep them safe. Every neighbourhood needs something that people can go to at night if they are in trouble.’
For more information, visit mowana.org.au