Olivia Fleming lends a helping hand with The Little Help Project

OLIVIA Fleming is changing the lives of those around her, with a little help from her friends.

OLIVIA Fleming is changing the lives of those around her, with a little help from her friends.

The Year 12 Guilford Young College student created The Little Help Project this year in response to the mental health issues faced by young Tasmanians.

Supported by friends and a qualified facilitator, the program is delivered via an empowerment workshop aimed at combating social issues such as self-esteem, bullying and leadership.

“We’re kids helping kids. We’re not counselling them, we’re just trying to give them a little bit of help,” Olivia said.

“It’s not about us saying ‘we’ve done it all before, we know the way’, it’s more that we’re dealing with similar things too.”

A series of events led to the creation of The Little Help Project, Olivia said, including her time at St Vincent de Paul and Edmund Rice camps.

“It started out as just five of us in a youth room and now we want it to become a fully-fledged non-profit organisation,” she said.

Olivia has been nominated in the Pride of Australia Medal’s young leader category.

“You don’t do it for appreciation – you do it to see the kids come out the other side as more confident, happy ­people,” she said.

Nominations close 5pm on Tuesday.