The Kid LAROI and headspace - two homegrown Aussie success stories - are teaming up to amplify the voices of young artists while raising much needed funds for youth mental health.
With nearly 12 billion Spotify streams and a pair of Grammy nominations under his belt, The Kid LAROI is excited to give back to the community he loves, launching The LAROI Foundation this month as his The First Time tour travels across the country.
The LAROI Foundation has a mission to empower youth to follow their dreams, partnering with organisations to engage and positively impact young people everywhere regardless of circumstances.
headspace is proud to be a founding partner working alongside The LAROI Foundation towards a shared goal of supporting young people to connect with their community and live happy, healthy lives.
"It's really important for me to give back to the community that helped me when I was growing up, and that's what I want to do with The LAROI Foundation," LAROI said.
"I'm grateful I got the chance to build my confidence and share my voice through music, and it's important every young person has an opportunity for their voice to be heard.
"Spaces like headspace, where you can go and talk to someone on those days you're not feeling great, make a huge difference."
To celebrate the launch, a limited-edition headspace x The LAROI Foundation t-shirt designed by a team of four young creatives, is available online and at The Kid LAROI's gigs around the country.
Following a nation-wide callout, headspace and The Kid LAROI invited Ashley, Jay, Siena and Saffy to attend the two-day workshop. The artists explored themes of community, self-care and positive uplifting messages, before translating these concepts into the final t-shirt artwork.
The national youth mental health foundation, headspace has provided early intervention mental health and other wellbeing services to young people in Australia for 18 years and its model of carehas since been replicated around the world in response to the rising need among young people for youth-friendly mental health care.
The CEO of headspace, Jason Trethowan, said the partnership with The LAROI Foundation was the coming together of two organisations that care deeply for the health and wellbeing of young people.
"Through his music The Kid LAROI has built a connection with so many of the young people that headspace is also proud to support during tough times," Mr Trethowan said.
"Connecting with one another through creativity and conversation is an essential part of good mental health, and we're excited to work alongside LAROI to bring that message to even young people.
"Both headspace and The LAROI Foundation share a vision for an Australia where every young person has the opportunity to express themselves and forge strong connections with their community."
Director of The LAROI Foundation, Shannon Dunn, said the organisations are already working on future collaboration opportunities.
"We're dreaming up a range of music and arts projects that will give young people more opportunities to develop and share their talents.
"It's important that through our partnership with headspace we encourage young people to seek out opportunities for connection and remove stigma around getting the support you need if you are going through tough times."
Funds raised will support headspace's work online, in schools and universities, and at over 160 centres across Australia. headspace x The LAROI Foundation t-shirts are on sale at The Kid LAROI gigs across Australia and available online.
