250K youth project – Engaging with teens and young adults

April 2020

The 250K youth project is progressing both our peer mentor program and the Connect 250K project which allows young people to connect through online chat forums.

We have a strong group of peer mentors aged 16-24 years of age who are working with us to support school aged teens living with severe allergies. Our peer mentors who were able to attend our camp in November 2019 participated in a training day prior to the main camp commencing. We will be providing further training to our peer mentors via video conference commencing in May 2020.

For more information about the 250K peer mentor program, visit: https://teen.250k.org.au/peer-mentor-program/

Connect 250K is a project which aims to enable young people living with severe allergies to connect with each other and share experiences. National Allergy Strategy staff and 250K peer mentors also participate in these sessions to help guide discussions and provide support.

Online chat forums are conducted each month – one session for school aged teens and one session for young adults (17 years +).

To register your interest in the Connect 250K program, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

250K Hub available

12 June 2019: 

The 250K website has been refreshed and a new section for young adults has been added.

These resources have been updated and created through engagement with young people.

What’s new?

• The 250K homepage now provides an option for young people to access the original school-aged teens site or a new site developed for young adults.
• The 250K school-aged teens site has been refreshed with a new homepage to make finding information easier.
• The young adult site has been created to allow young adults to access information particularly relevant to them. Topics include managing allergies at university and in the workplace, when travelling, when moving out, dating and when starting a family.

Now that the websites have been completed, we will be commencing our chat forums which can be accessed through the websites. The chat forums aim to engage with young people and help young people connect with each other. We look forward to ongoing chat forums to support young people in managing their allergies, particularly food allergies. The chat forums will also form an important part of our peer mentor program.

The 250K youth project has received funding from the Australian Government Department of Health.

Visit the 250K website and Facebook page for news items and updates www.250K.org.au

250K Youth Camp

January 2019

The 250K youth camp held in late January, was a great success according to the campers who participated.

Here are some of the highlights from the camp held at Yarramundi YMCA in Western Sydney.

30 campers attended the camp, aged from 11-23, alongside 9 National Allergy Strategy staff and volunteers. This was the first face to face meeting of some members of the 250K Youth Advisory Team. Despite the scorching temperatures (45°C!) campers participated in all of the planned activities – their favourite being kayaking.

Other favourite activities were the giant swing, Sydney Trapeze School, high ropes, team games with Pete Griffiths (CEO of Australian Camps Association), and the medical & allied health discussions lead by an Allergist (Dr Melanie Wong), Dietitian (Dr Merryn Netting) and Allergy Nurse (Briony Tyquin).

A whopping 17 meal times were catered for over the duration of the camp – which given our group had 21 different food allergies to manage – was very impressive! Campers mentioned on numerous occasions throughout camp how well fed they were. Read more...

250K – an information hub for teens and young adults with severe allergies launched

22 June 2017

The website - ‘250K – A hub for the 250,000 young Australians living with severe allergies’ www.250K.org.au - aims to provide age-appropriate information and resources to assist young people who are living with severe allergies, and to help them to feel more connected with other teens and young adults going through similar experiences in a fun but informative way. See more...

This project has received funding from the Australian Government.

Teen/young adult project

26 April 2017

Work is progressing well with the teen/young adult project.  

Focus group sessions to determine the branding and design for the resources has been undertaken and the website development is progressing well. 

A Youth Advisory Group has also been established consisting of several young people who made contact during recruitment for the focus group sessions. 

The teen/young adult resources will be launched on Monday 26th June 2017. 

Improving allergy management for teens and young adults

26 August 2016

Teens and young adults are a high risk group for fatal anaphylaxis. There are limited resources for this group and effective ways of educating are urgently required.

The government funding will provide the opportunity to engage with teens and young adults and determine effective communication and education methods. Urgently needed resources, targeted specifically at teens and young adults will be developed based on the outcomes of these discussions. 

The proposed strategy is to conduct an extensive survey inviting teens and young adults to discuss allergy management barriers, areas of need, effective communication and education methods.

Results from the survey will guide resource development and may include website development, social media platforms and online forums with mentors.

Content updated April 2020