A Seat at the Table: Adapting Peer Support for Younger Men

This project asks how an evidence-backed model of care could be reimagined for a younger cohort. The Men’s Table works on a simple model — safe, confidential, judgement-free spaces where men can talk honestly, something many struggle to find elsewhere. It has a proven track record with men in mid-life, but reaching young men before disconnection takes hold is a different design problem.

Working with The Men’s Table as community partner, students would help redesign how young men connect, open up, and look out for each other — through a live, funded pilot across Canberra.

Students will learn how to translate an existing, evidence-backed model of care into a new context — adapting proven principles of belonging, trust, and peer support for a younger demographic, while grounding their design work in real community need and lived experience.

Skills Developed

• Community Co-Design
• Human-Centred Design
• Program Evaluation & Research

Students would build on The Men's Table's existing research and materials, including:

• The Men's Table Model of Care report
• From Couch to Community (research on men's help-seeking behaviour)
• Community through Adversity
• The Ripple Effect (evaluation of Men's Table's impact on members and those close to them)

A pilot design and evaluation framework for a youth-adapted Men's Table model, that:

• identifies what needs to change (and what should stay the same) to suit a younger cohort;
• proposes a workable format and engagement approach for a live pilot in Canberra;
• outlines how success would be measured; and
• provides The Men's Table with a practical, evidence-informed resource to guide the pilot's rollout.

This project connects directly to The Men's Table's own growth — new Tables are forming across Australia, and this pilot would be a genuine first step toward reaching younger men before disconnection takes hold. Students would be working with a partner that has real infrastructure and community trust already in place.

Recommended for students:

• Students interested in mental health, wellbeing, or social connection, especially work grounded in lived experience rather than abstract theory
• Those drawn to service design or co-design, who want to adapt something proven rather than start from a blank page
• Students who care about young men's mental health specifically — this project sits close to a growing public conversation
• People who enjoy community-facing work with a real partner and real stakes, similar to the Pedal Power and Gateways projects
• Those who prefer qualitative, human-centred research over pure data analysis