Sydney—A scavenger hunt, made up of activities designed to improve mental health in order to “Find the Elephant,” was the winning idea to come out of the first ‘Social Hack’ run by Gadens Lawyers Network (now Dentons Lawyers Network), Sydney and the Westpac Group’s Youth Network on Thursday 22 September at Gadens’ Sydney (now Dentons) office.

The Social Hack was run in support of batyr, a ‘for-purpose’ Australian organisation that aims to engage, educate and empower young people to have positive conversations about mental health.

Attendees from Gadens Lawyers Network (now Dentons Lawyers Network) and the Westpac Group’s Youth Network were split into teams and challenged to generate unique and innovative funding solutions for batyr programs. Teams developed a number of ideas before pitching their best idea to judges, with ideas ranging from redirecting EAP funding to sessions with batyr trained speakers and partnering with the banks to use food apps as sponsorship.

Jono Peatfield, Partnerships Manager at batyr commented, “There were some great ideas that we can definitely tap into, and in general it is great to now have a group of new people who know about batyr and the work we do”.

Anthony Johnson, Chair of the Westpac Group’s Youth Network, also commented, “I think it was a sensational evening that had everything – education, skill-building, positive social impacts, networking, and fun! Thanks also to Gadens for their hard work in planning, hosting, and facilitating the session”.

This sentiment was mirrored by Gadens Sydney (now Dentons). Katherine O’Regan, co-Chair of the Gadens Lawyers Network (now Dentons Lawyers Network) said, “The Social Hack brought together the best young minds from Gadens (now Dentons) and the Westpac Group to brainstorm ideas using ‘design thinking’ techniques to improve batyr’s profile in the corporate community. It was an enormous success with unbelievable energy and fantastically lateral thinking from all involved.”

Partner in Charge of Innovation and Practice at Gadens Sydney (now Dentons), John Dalzell said, “The Hackathon was the perfect example of smart young city folk really giving back to the community in the most innovative and meaningful way and Gadens (now Dentons) was delighted to support it. Young people looking after the mental health of other young people and helping to de-stigmatise the term ‘mental health is a worthy and valuable initiative.”

Gadens Lawyers Network (now Dentons Lawyers Network) was proud to partner with the Westpac Group to meaningfully contribute to batyr’s work in reducing the stigma around mental health issues and generating positive conversation.

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