About Fresh

Hope Australia

FRESH HOPE AUSTRALIA - Our Story

Registered with the Australian Charities and Non-for-Profits Commission ACNC ABN: 52667 451 372

FRESH HOPE for MENTAL HEALTH is a network of Christian peer support groups dedicated to helping individuals with mental illnesses and their loved ones find real hope and resilience.

VISION: To create a community where individuals affected by mental health challenges can live full, rich, and purpose-filled lives with wellness and wholeness. To see the faith community well equipped to care for their people with mental health challenges and to help them care for people in their community.

MISSION: To empower and equip people with mental health diagnoses and their loved ones to thrive despite their challenges through Christ-centered peer support groups, online forums, educational opportunities, and faith-filled mental health resources.

Over two in five Australians aged 16-85 years (43.7% or 8.6 million people) had experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life

One in five (21.4% or 4.2 million people) had a 12-month mental disorder

Anxiety was the most common group of 12-month mental disorders (16.8% or 3.3 million people)

Almost two in five people (39.6%) aged 16-24 years had a 12-month mental disorder

And while the doctor, therapist, and medicine are necessary, they are not enough. Suicide rates continue to rise. The medical (the doctor, therapist, and medicine) aspects of mental health recovery can lead to a type of “learned helplessness.”

When someone’s life is interrupted by mental illness, it can be tough to see a practical way forward with day-to-day life, and a good future seems out of reach. Feelings of hopelessness begin to settle in. This hopelessness can lead to suicidal thinking and even death by suicide.

A serious gap exists between someone receiving medical treatment for mental illness and them learning how to live well in spite of it. This gap is critical. So we become the bridge, the guide from the point of diagnosis to living well. Research shows that finding a way to live a hope-filled life can be best caught, not taught, by peers who have “been there” and are now living well. Research also shows that the best antidote for hopelessness is a hope that is rooted in faith.

We provide those who are hopeless a safe place to process their pain and experience faith-filled hope modeled, shared, and given in support groups, classes, coaching, and resources that are led and written by peers who are living well in spite of their mental health challenge. This serves as a bridge between someone’s diagnosis and living well in spite of their diagnosis. Our approach is based on seven mental health recovery principles and 25 years of clinical research on hope. And it works.

Because of Fresh Hope, thousands of people are living active, faith- and hope-filled lives. They are enjoying their relationships, their families, their work, and are feeling more hopeful than ever before. They are living well in spite of their mental health challenge. They are thriving!

Click on the tab below to watch Brad Hoeft – Founder of Fresh Hope.

About us

How does Fresh Hope Integrate Faith into Mental Health Support?

FRESH HOPE INTEGRATE FAITH INTO MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT IN SEVERAL WAYS:

Christ-Centered Approach

Fresh Hope is described as a “Christ-centered wellness approach to mental health recovery”. The organisation emphasizes that hope rooted in faith is a powerful antidote to the hopelessness often experienced with mental health challlenges.

Faith-Based
Principles

The program is based on six tenets (principles) that connect faith and recovery principles. These tenets empower individuals to live “full and rich faith-filled lives” despite mental health diagnoses.

Spiritual Component

Fresh Hope recognizes that wellness encompasses mental, physical and spiritual aspects. Their support groups provide a safe space for people to process their pain and experience “faith-filled hope”.

Biblical Foundation

The organisation cites Bible verses like Philippians 4:13 as inspiration: “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength”. This reinforces the idea that faith can be a source of strength in mental health recovery.

Church Involvement

Fresh Hope challenges Christian churches to address mental health needs in their communities and provide compassionate, understanding support. This integrates mental health care into faith communities.

Peer Support Model

The program uses a peer-to-peer model, where people who have “been there” and are now living well share their experiences of integrating faith and mental health recovery.

Holistic View

Rather than separating faith and mental health treatment, Fresh Hope aims to be a “bridge” that guides people from diagnosis to living well, incorporating both medical treatment and spiritual support.

Complementary

By weaving faith principles throughout their approach, Fresh Hope offers a distinctly Christian perspective on mental health support and recovery. The organization sees faith as complementary to, rather than separate from, other aspects of mental health care.

Fresh Hope Australia Pioneer

Rev Dr Inoke Veamatahau

CEO

Inoke is an ordained pastor, currently serving at Werribee Baptist Church (www.werribeebaptist.org.au). Inoke is the Pioneer of FHA, trialing Fresh Hope in Melbourne 2022 in consultation with Fresh Hope International (USA). Inoke is a Fresh Hope-qualified Coach & a Fresh Hope-qualified Facilitator. He is a graduate from Fuller Theological Seminary (DMin), and a current PhD Researcher at the University of Melbourne, Nossal Institute of Global Health. His vision is to expand the work and ministry of FHA in Australia and the surrounding countries in the South Pacific region.

BOARD

MATTHEW MILLER - Director

· 22 years Air Force, 7 years Training and education. Training Manager for Raytheon and BAE Systems in Avalon for four years. RMIT University – Educational Specialist to Assistant Director Business Development. Graduate Dip in Industrial Education and Training and Master in Education. In 2012 Training Manager of a NFP and Business Relationship Manager; · 2017 Bendigo Kangan Institute in 2017 as Manager for Resource Development responsible for LLN, VET in Schools programs and other Government projects with VRQA, Victorian Skills Authority and Industry stakeholders; In 2021 to Wavelength Learning as Head of Education VET/Higher Ed to use the skills and expertise of the talented team and expand them from providing learning design and eLearning services for the NFP, corporate and government sectors into education; He has strong governance experience, being GIACD-qualified; · School boards and councils for over 22 years as a director and chair. This included eight years as Chair of St Philips Lutheran Church Werribee, nine years as Chair of Good News Lutheran School Tarneit, and on the Board for Lutheran Education Victorian, NSW and Tasmania (BLEVNT) as a director and vice chair for the past five years.

INOKE VEAMATAHAU - Director

Inoke is a pastor at Werribee Baptist Church and the founder of FHA, which is testing Fresh Hope in Melbourne in 2022 through collaboration with Fresh Hope International. He is currently supported by the Baptist Union of Victoria to grow FHA’s ministry and establish it as a non-profit organisation in Australia. He is a Hope-qualified Facilitator and Coach.

He is a graduate from Fuller Theological Seminary (DMin), and a current PhD Researcher at the University of Melbourne, Nossal Institute of Global Health, looking at the role of faith in health, with interest in co-designing a faith-health working model to help the faith community in engaging with public health in promoting health. He has a long term vision to grow FHA’s work and ministry in Australia and the neighboring countries in the South Pacific region.

Our Aims

Fresh Hope Australia aims to tackle the isolation faced by individuals with mental health diagnoses and the loved ones by building a supporting community through a network of Christian facilitators. With over 20 years of ministry experience and deeper understanding of mental health challenges, we are committed to establishing support groups, offering education, online forum, personal coaching, and faith-based mental health resources and tools for churches and other organizations.

Our Mission

To empower and equip people with mental health diagnoses and their loved ones to thrive despite their challenges through Christ-centered peer support groups, online forums, educational opportunities, coaching, and faith-filled mental health resources.

The Goals of Fresh Hope Australia (Vision)

To equip and empower individuals (and their loved ones) who are affected by a mental health diagnosis to live a full, rich and purpose-filled life in wellness and wholeness (mental, physical and spiritual) through participation in local Fresh Hope groups which are Christ-centered peer support groups, as well as online forums, educational opportunities and faith based mental health resources.

To provide ongoing assistance to individuals and their families during times of transition, by providing Mental Health Navigators in local communities who are Certified Peer Support Specialists and Certified Wellness Coaches.

To challenge the Christian church to address the mental health crisis in their community- challenging them to provide a “compassionate, understanding, safe and supportive place” for those who struggle with mental health issues. This includes understanding that many mental health challenges are due to the brain’s improper function and are not character flaws, moral failures or a spiritual weakness.

To advocate on both the state and national levels for continued mental health reforms to repair the issues that “broken” in the system.

To provide peer-run wellness centres in the local communities as a positive place of encouragement, connection, empowerment and learning.

To join with other organisations and voices in tearing down the thick walls of cultural stigma regarding “mental illness.”

Fresh Hope Philosophy

Fresh Hope is a peer-to-peer Christ-centered wellness approach to mental health recovery based upon six tenets that empowers people to connect both their faith and recovery principles. This approach both empowers and encouraging individuals live full and rich lives in spite of their diagnosis

The Fresh Hope approach includes the following beliefs

Peer-to-peer support plays a very significant role in one’s successful recovery.
There is a difference between “just coping” and thriving.
When used exclusively, the medical model can lead to a “learned helplessness”.
Recovery and wellness is a “taking back” of one’s life and living it to the fullest possible.
Peers who give back by coming along side others in recovery sometimes receive even more than they “give.”
People who have “been there” oftentimes understand and help more people than those who have not been “through it.”
Faith in Christ is foundational to having hope in hopeless situations.
The Christian church needs to be proactive and reach out with hope to the millions who are in emotional pain.
The state and federal mental health systems cannot do “it all”. There are many things they could improve upon.
One must accept personal responsibility for his/her own recovery and wellness.
Sometimes, you have to simply “push through” even though you feel horrible or feel like giving up.
It’s self-destructive to use your mental health diagnosis as an excuse for not moving forward in recovery.

Client Testimonials

Some love words from clients

Fresh Hope helped me find improvement by hearing the stories of others who have overcome mental health challenges.

I started the 8-week course rating 2/10 in my mental health state. At the end of the course, it went up to 9/10. I strongly recommend Fresh Hope to anyone.

I benefited from relating to other people's experiences. I am still sitting on the fence regarding whether I actually have a mental illness or whether there may be a biblical explanation to this, incl