Our Values & Goals

What we are about

supporting young men in canberra

We help young men across the Canberra region make better choices and engage positively with society because young men matter to their families, our community and our future.

Our Identity

Menslink supports young men in the Canberra region through our free counselling, mentoring and education programs. For twenty years, we have helped thousands of young guys get through tough or lonely times with the least amount of harm to themselves and those around them.

We help young guys build capacity, not dependency; developing and building on their resilience and empathy and helping them become the great adult men they want to be.

Our Values

  • Kindness and empathy
  • Contribution and impact
  • Connection and community
  • Safety and integrity
  • Innovation and adaptability
  • Equality and fairness

Our Strategic Direction

  • Encourage young men to seek help and assist others in difficult times.
  • Develop young men’s skills, self-esteem and motivation to improve themselves, their behaviours and their relationships with others.
  • Support young men going through difficult times with professional counselling services.
  • Provide young men with positive male role models through our volunteer mentoring service.
  • Increase awareness of the issues relating to young men and their impact on families and the community.
  • Continue to develop and modify our programs to meet the changing needs of young men and provide them with a choice of support options.
  • Sustain and grow the organisation with sound governance and strong financial management.
  • Contribute to our broader community by supporting gender equality, cultural awareness and sustainability initiatives.

Our Outcomes

  • Young men are not ashamed to ask for help and to reach out to help those around them.
  • Young men are more resilient and can manage emotional challenges without resorting to aggression and violence, self-harm or substance abuse.
  • Young men engage in less anti-social behaviour, are more pro-social and their families and schools report improved relationships with them.
  • The Canberra community is actively engaged in supporting young men through government, corporate, philanthropic and volunteering support of Menslink’s vision, values & work.
  • The majority of our clients and stakeholders report positive personal and social impacts across all our programs.
  • Menslink contains unit cost increases to within five per cent per year for existing programs.
  • Menslink has long term security of funding to continue to deliver and grow in line with community expectations.

We combine our own lived experience with professional expertise to support young men (and their families).

Menslink’s philosophy is underpinned by a strengths-based approach to working with young men. This means that rather than focus on “what’s wrong”, we identify their positive resources and abilities and help them leverage these in areas that aren’t working so well.

The Rules of Menslink (our constitution) is available to any member or prospective member. Contact us for more information.