Introduction to the organisation

Villagehood Australia is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to support the woman in every mother and committed to transforming the experience of motherhood by contributing to changing broader society's mindset around motherhood and to creating a better reality for all mothers, their families and communities.

We believe that creating a safe space for mothers to meaningfully connect and make friendships is paramount to protecting their mental health as it provides them with a support network and help them build the capacity to better cope with the everyday challenges of motherhood - beating loneliness & isolation. We also believe in advocacy and the power of numbers. Connected and organised mums have the power to change things and positively impact the world we live in and create a better reality for themselves, their families and their communities (ripple effect). Through our movement SA Women Who Mum we aim to increase our reach and impact. To achieve our vision of transforming motherhood, we are working on two main goals simultaneously

Transforming the mums

Transforming the system With this approach, we can start witnessing a cultural shift and the creation of a better world for all mothers, their families and communities. Villagehood is currently operating in SA, with aim to expand interstate in the near future.

Organisation's product/services

Community support Workshops marketing and events Please note, the above services are provided to SA residents only

Organisation's main

competitors

Various Start-up business and registered training providers. Business Development and Women's network groups

The problem/challenge/ opportunity

There is limited support available for mothers (from initial stages of pregnancy to delayed postpartum), especially young ones and those with no family around them, or those impacted by pandemic or life circumstances. As a social enterprise, we rely on donations and government grants and we have limited funding available to respond to constantly growing market and community demands. In the past years we have gained momentum and were able to represent our voices at a local and federal level.

To help us better articulate and argue our postulates, meet the market demands, yet cover the costs of operations and ultimately be able to make a difference, we are asking students to help us make a set of documents that will cover:

1. The state of maternal mental health

Conduct a literature review that includes academic and reputable publications as well as grey literature from Australia, EU and USA amongst other countries

Identify key issues and constraints

Identify gaps

Identify services and support that is provided

Maternal health relates to the period of early

pregnancy stages to delayed post-partum (years after giving birth)

2. Stakeholders mapping

Identify stakeholders and advocacy groups associated

with maternal mental health from an individual, through community, councils, sectors to the federal levels.

It is recommended to use the stakeholder science model

3. Cost benefit analysis

What is the current cost of the sector

What is the socio-economic impact of not having

mental health services in place?

4* based on the research findings, design a survey (10-15 questions) that will be disseminated to the Villagehood users.