For Rangatahi
Overcome life’s lows with your Village
Feeling stressed, anxious or struggling with the ups and downs?
Village helps you check in and kōrero (talk) with people you trust, so you don’t have to go it alone.
Village is proudly supported by
What is Village?
Village is an evidence-based app that supports rangatahi (young people) going through tough times to have safe, guided conversations with people they trust.
How can Village help?
Village is a way of explaining what you’re going through and how you’re feeling to a small network of people you trust. It’s a way of knowing that although you might feel alone, you know that you don’t have go it alone.
A safe space to connect
Talking about your feelings can be scary. Village makes it easier.
- Add up to five whānau (family) members or friends to your Village.
- Use interactive questions to help you shift messy emotions into simple messages.
- Receive personalised tips designed to support you on your journey through the lows.
Developed by experts
Studies show that you are more likely to overcome challenges in life when you have the support of friends and whānau.
- Clinically recommended by Starship hospital experts.
- Co-designed with young people and whānau.
- Proven to be supportive, effective and safe during a University of Auckland trial.
Guided support for friends and whanāu
Village empowers family and friends to listen, reply and take action.
- Village supports buddies with personalised tips designed by experts.
- You can find helpful resources within the app to support your buddy through the tough times.
- Designed with NZ rangatahi & whānau for NZ young people and whānau.
Rangatahi FAQs
Village is an app to help you through the tough times with guided support from trusted friends and whānau. Developed by experts in collaboration with rangatahi and their whānau, with Village, you never have to go it alone.
Village is for everyone, but is primarily designed for young people going through a hard time. It helps rangatahi to build a small support network of trusted individuals, called buddies, to get them through the lows.
It’s not always easy to find the words for what you’re feeling, and sometimes opening up can be scary. The app helps young people express their emotions with guided prompts, and gives the people in your ‘Village’ the tools they need to support you.
Village is designed to pick up worrying language. When it does, Village will message the young person directly with the option to contact Youthline or other services for extra support.
With Village, you can get the help you need at any time directly within the app by calling 111, Youthline or adding a contact number for someone you know and fully trust to support you if and when you need it most.
Village is free to use, for everyone. You’ll need access to the internet to send or receive messages.
Village works on any NZ mobile phone and any operating system. Go to the App Store or Google Play Store to download Village.
Village is only available in Aotearoa, New Zealand. However, if you live outside of New Zealand and would like to use Village please contact us at starshipfoundation@adhb.govt.nz.
All the information is stored on a secure server and encrypted to ensure maximum security with your information. We do not share any information with third party services.
For Buddies
Support someone who’s struggling
We’ve all known someone going through a rough patch and it can be tough figuring out how to help without feeling like you’re intruding or feeling like you have no idea how to help or what to say.
The Village app guides buddies about how to best support a young person in need. The app provides buddies with tips and tools, along with evidence-based prompts for how to ask the right questions at the right time.
What are ‘buddies’ and who can be one?
A ‘buddy’ is a friend, whānau, or even a health professional who is known and trusted. They are added to the Village by a young person to provide support and a listening ear. A buddy is someone they trust enough to connect with when and how often they need help.
How can a buddy help?
There are many ways a buddy can help a friend or family member going through a tough time.
Connect
Reaching out helps a young person who is struggling feel connected.
A buddy is someone rangatahi can turn to for support and feel less alone with their troubles.
Help with difficult emotions
Reaching out will help a friend or whānau member sort through their feelings and thoughts. The Village app provides the buddy with tips on how to help the young person struggling to process their emotions.
Feel safe
There’s nothing like a sense of belonging during difficult times, especially as it can feel like nobody understands what we’re going through. Village provides tips and resources to help buddies better understand what the rangatahi is experiencing and how they can best meet the young person’s needs.
How Village works for buddies
Invite the friend or whānau you would like to support to join Village.
Once you connect, you can begin messaging each other. You can check in with your buddy with guided questions which lets them know you’re there for them.
Village provides personalised tips to help you support your buddy in the right way as everyone needs support in different ways in different situations.
The more you connect and open up with your friend or whānau, the stronger they’ll feel.
Buddy FAQs
A buddy is a person who is known and trusted. A buddy is added to the Village to provide support and a listening ear. They could be whānau – a brother, nana or aunty. Or, they could be a close friend – someone the young person trusts.
It isn’t always easy to know how to help. When you’re a buddy, the Village app provides you with the tools you need to support a friend/family member, but also help you understand what they might be going through. If someone has asked you to be a buddy, it’s likely their way of saying they want to be able to connect with you when they need support.
We know mental health can be difficult to talk about, and that’s something we’re trying to change. Village will help you navigate the conversation with your friend, cousin, sibling, etc., to help support them in the best way possible.
Village is designed to pick up worrying language. When it does, Village will message rangatahi directly with the option to contact Youthline or other services for extra support.
With Village, young people can get the support they need at any time directly within the app by calling 111, Youthline or adding a contact number for someone they know and fully trust to support them if and when they need it most. As their buddy, this support person could be you.
For Clinicians
As a clinician, why should I recommend
Village to a young person?
Village can help to increase the level of support for a young person while they’re receiving counselling or other forms of therapy from school-based, community and specialist services. It is designed to be an adjunct, rather than a replacement, for these approaches to care.
How does Village support young people and their buddies?
Young people routinely depend on friends and whānau for support. However, these individuals may not always feel confident in knowing how to respond to their needs.
Village helps ‘buddies’ know how best to respond to the young person’s needs with tips and tools. Included in the app is useful information about improving communication and common mental health issues.
Village helps young people to reach out and supports rangatahi with tailored messages to help explain what they’re feeling.
Clinician FAQs
Village is based on proven principles of e-health, self-help, peer support and whānau ora (family well-being). International evidence confirms the immediate and longer-term value of peer-nominated support systems in reducing rates of self-harm and completed suicide (King CA et al., 2019, doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.4358). The app was co-designed by rangatahi, whanau, IT specialists and mental health professionals. During an open trial conducted by the University of Auckland (Thabrew et al., in press), Village was found to be acceptable, safe and to improve users’ mood. Further trials of the app are planned.
We recommend checking in with young people from time to time, to find out how they are using the app. Users can also add your telephone number to the app, so that they can more easily contact you as needed.
Yes, a young person can invite you to be one of their buddies. They can also limit how often you (and all buddies) message them.
Although Village offers young people a non-threatening means for rangatahi to obtain regular and real-time support, there may be risks associated with its use. Village includes risk-detection software that will notify users when any worrying messages (based on a set of key words) are sent. Users will be offered the opportunity to be put through to Youthline for immediate support. Although data is stored on user’s devices, sent messages will be stored on recipient devices, so young people should be encouraged to choose buddies that they can trust with this information. During the open trial, no other possible risk issues were identified. However, on-going monitoring and modification of the app will be undertaken to ensure the safety of users and buddies.
Recommend Village now
Find the right words to share with the right people.
Report a bug
We want to make sure the Village app is always up to standard.
Found a problem within the Village app? Report a problem and we will fix it as soon as possible.