Sunshine Coast man dedicated to preventing youth suicide asks for financial support

A former bodybuilder who lost his brother and four close clients to suicide has issued his own call to help to continue his work in helping youth battling their own mental health demons.

Leon Stensholm started Lookout 07, a youth centre for 12-to-25-year-olds, in 2023 after the tragic loss of his brother and four close clients to suicide.

A Sunshine Coast man who has dedicated half a million dollars and hundreds of thousands of hours to providing mental health support to local youth is asking for help from the community.

Former bodybuilder and trainer Leon Stensholm started Lookout 07, a youth centre for 12-to-25-year-olds, in 2023 after the tragic loss of his brother and four close clients to suicide.

Mr Stensholm said he “saw a gap” in the care being offered to young people and decided he needed to be the one to fill it.

Open four afternoons a week, Lookout 07 provides fully supervised physical, social and emotional support to the Sunshine Coast’s young people, completely free of charge.

Lookout 07 is also a phone-free-zone, meaning everyone who walks in the door has to remain in-the-moment and fully engaged while they’re there.

“These kids don’t actually want to be on their phones all day, it’s just the world we live in right now,” Mr Stensholm said.

“They want to be active, they want to be social, they want to connect.

“They just need a safe space to do that in.”

Part of the facilities at Lookout 07.

Mr Stensholm isn’t paid a cent for the hours and hours he spends every week getting kids moving around and talking about their mental health, but he says the way he feels at the end of each day “fills [his] cup”.

“To have kids tap you on the shoulder when they’re in a real troubled situation to the point of darkness, depression and even suicidal tendencies, and ask for help, that’s the best thing,” he said.

“We’ve taught kids as young as 13, 14, 15 to have a conversation and reach out for help when in my era, we were taught the opposite, to just get on with it.”

Watching children who are neurodiverse or targets of bullying come out of their shells is another highlight of the work he does, Mr Stensholm explained.

“Seeing kids who are challenged or bullied at school come here, engage and have no one look at each other differently brings a tear to my eye, it really does,” he said.

“I’ve seen things in here that I don’t see in the ‘real world’.”

Lookout 07 founder Leon Stensholm isn’t paid a cent for the hours and hours he spends every week getting kids moving around and talking about their mental health.

A local boy said he was “down a really bad path” before he found Lookout 07.

“I was out on the street, drinking, not caring about my health, not doing anything to improve my future,” he said.

He said the youth centre changed his life.

“There was just something leading me to this gym,” he said.

“Honestly, it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done.

Lookout 07 offers a fully-equipped gym for local youth.

Another boy said he almost took his own life three times, and Mr Stensolm was the one who “saved his life” on two of those occasions.

“I texted him saying, ‘Hey, I don’t know if I can do this anymore’ and he came straight over,” he said.

He said Lookout 07 was the reason he was “still here”.

“It’s become my passion,” he said.

“It’s just a great, great community.”

A young woman said she struggled with such severe bullying she had to leave school and all her friends.

“I had to lose everything and my best friend, Matt, showed me Lookout 07,” she said.

“He brought me here and that’s when I met Leon.

“You’ll walk in and you’ll just see kids running around, everyone laughing … it’s very welcoming.”

Lookout 07 recently welcomed its 10,000th child, something Mr Stensholm is incredibly proud of.

Despite the joy he and the broader team at the youth centre get from providing care to local children, Mr Stensholm said the foundation only had so much money and so many staff members to go around.

“I’ve pretty much put my life savings into this and we’ve had virtually no external support,” he said.

“Some local businesses have come on board, but we haven’t had any funding from government or council or anything.

“I’d never want to yell and scream, I’m not that type of person, but I’d humbly say Lookout 07 really needs all the help we can get.”

Every Monday to Thursday from 3pm to 6:30pm, the centre is packed full of young people making use of the gym, boxing ring, basketball court, pool table, table tennis, indoor games space, and ‘chill-out’ zone, none of which are cheap to provide and maintain.

“We’re not talking about helping one or two kids a week, we’re talking 40-50 kids per night,” Mr Stensholm said.

“I’m not paid for that and that’s okay because I do it for the kids, but it feels like it’s time for the community to give me a little bit of help keeping everything open.”

Runners in Lookout 07's annual Chicken Run fundraiser event.

Lookout 07’s annual Chicken Run fundraising event is set to take place on July 24, which promises to be as hilarious as it is heartwarming.

A group of locals, including Mr Stensholm, run approximately 75km from Noosa to Caloundra in chicken suits.

“It’s pretty intense,” Mr Stensholm said.

“And this year we’ve got some special guests joining us.

“A couple of ultra-marathon runners are going to be running 120km and doing some abnormal things.

“They might do detours up the mountains or swim a leg of the race, there are a lot of possibilities.”

Mr Stensholm urged the community to get involved, donate, and come along to see some chickens complete a massive run.

“Every donation counts,” he said.

Originally published as Sunshine Coast man dedicated to preventing youth suicide asks for financial support