Social entrepreneur shares wellbeing skills

For more than a decade' Townsville yoga teacher Jasmine Healy-Pagán has helped thousands of young people grow wellbeing and calm in an increasingly noisy world.

Now the social entrepreneur is growing her Youth RESET resilience program across the state' after expanding the vital initiative with support from iActivate' CQUniversity's online social enterprise course.

This week' Jasmine is touring Gympie' Ipswich and Brisbane' offering wellness workshops to young people and adults.

On Friday 24 February from 5.30pm-7.30pm' she'll deliver the popular session at CQUniversity Brisbane.

In 2021' Jasmine was one of eight North Queensland business owners who took on iActivate' thanks to a partnership between CQUniversity and Smart Precinct NQ.

"I've been an entrepreneur for most of my life and made things up as I went' and looking back' there's always things you would do differently'" she said.

"iActivate came at the perfect time' helping me to clarify and design what I want to achieve with Youth RESET' with social impact and making it work as a sustainable business."

Jasmine started her Youth RESET pilot in 2019' a five-week program supporting teenagers to develop emotional regulation' focus' resilience' intuition' compassion' optimism' confidence and healthy relationships.

"I love working with young people' and through my work and my parenting' I've seen teenagers become increasingly disconnected from themselves and the world because they're so tuned into their phones'" she explained.

"Youth RESET offers community classes which requests feedback from participants at the start and end of each session' asking how they feel on a scale. I'm finding more than 80 per cent feel better at the end of a single session' and it's a 30 to 50 per cent improvement."

Youth RESET social enterprise earns income through community' school and business partnerships' and it sponsors young adults to become paid facilitators in the program.

The initiative builds on Jasmine's experience starting Yoga Tools for Schools Inc. – Australia's first not-for-profit yoga in education organisation.

Jasmine wrote and facilitated professional training for educators to learn simple and effective self-care tools to enhance their own wellbeing and the students they teach.

She also founded Townsville's holistic wellness community Sundalah' running events across a decade and raising $30'000 for local causes.

Jasmine said iActivate connected her with other passionate community-minded people' and her relationship with other participants' and with CQUniversity' continues.

"Finding people who understand their 'why' and are working to create positive change' has been a huge benefit for me'" she said.

"There's so much for me to learn in this space' and it's so heart-warming to connect with people who have been working in this way for so long."

iActivate launched in 2020 and is a collaboration between CQUniversity and for-good Brisbane-based business' Impact Boom.

Learn more at cqu.edu.au/iactivate.