Senior CAYAD Advisor - Ella Mikic-Trbojevic
Ella Mikic-Trbojevic
Senior CAYAD Advisor Introduction
Pātai Tuatahi/Question 1
Ko wai koe, no hea koe. Tell us bit about yourself.
Ko Ella Mikic-Trbojevic tōku ingoa. I was born and raised in central Tāmaki Makaurau. My whānau comes from Croatia (Zagreb and Slavonski Brod) and my parents moved to Aotearoa just before I was born so I’m a first generation Kiwi and definitely a third culture kid! I was lucky enough to travel back and live in Croatia for a couple of years as a kid, and this instilled a love of travel in me that continues on to this day and also gave me the opportunity to become fluent in my family’s native language Croatian.
Pātai Tuarua/Question 2
Tell us a bit about the mahi/work experience you bring (employment, voluntary, in service to your community, whānau, hapū or iwi). Please also include when you started in the CAYAD kaupapa.
I started in CAYAD in January 2019, after finishing my Master of Public Health degree. For my thesis I looked into attitudes and stigma towards mental health services amongst university students. After my studies, I knew I wanted to do something that would help promote and improve health outcomes for my community, but I didn’t initially plan to dive into the space of alcohol and drug harm reduction – but I feel very honoured to have found myself in this space now and it has become a real passion for me.
Pātai Tuatoru/Question 3
What drives you and why is the mahi/work we do in the CAYAD kaupapa so important to you?
I’ve always been driven by a passion for social justice and a desire to help the communities around me. While I was studying public health my eyes were opened to the significant health inequities faced across Aotearoa and how they affect tāmariki and rangatahi across the country. The CAYAD kaupapa is incredibly important to me as it represents all the ways that alcohol and drug harm reduction can contribute to better outcomes for our communities as a whole. Our lives, challenges and strengths never exist in isolation from one another, and likewise the CAYAD kaupapa can be woven into so many areas to create an important impact.
Pātai Tuawhā/Question 4
The CAYAD kaupapa includes improving policies, systems and practices; community action to reduce supply of alcohol and other drugs; and increasing opportunities for young people to be healthy and reach their full potential. Please share a couple of examples of your mahi/work that contributes to this, or if you’ve started within the past 12 months please share a couple of project areas you’re interested in exploring.
Before I had started at CAYAD I did a few internships that focused on public communications and I knew that sharing public health information is a crucial step towards better health outcomes. This has become something I’ve consciously weaved into my mahi, particularly in the space of alcohol and drug policy. I think it’s vital that our communities, including rangatahi, can have a clear, informed and engaged say in the alcohol and drug policies that will impact their lives. There have been several opportunities where I have worked to engage and support communities on issues of alcohol and drug policies, including the 2020 Cannabis Referendum, the 2021 Land Transport Drug Driving Amendment, Auckland Council’s Alcohol Signage Bylaw Review and more recently several Sale and Supply of Alcohol Amendment Bills that have been introduced into parliament. The focus of this mahi is to support community members to take on opportunities to share their whakaaro on policy issues through online engagement, postcards, parliament and local government submissions and workshops.
Pātai Tuarima/Question 5
Thinking about someone new to our kaupapa, what’s a key piece of advice you’d like to share.
It is really valuable to me to understand the breadth of the system that works to perpetuate drug and alcohol harm in our communities. While I’m conscious that it can be complex and impossible to tackle all the different issues at one time, it helps me to have a good idea of all the different things that may be affecting a particular issue because then you can identify where and how you can have the most impact. When you’re working to support or engage with communities, think about the systems, laws, policies, attitudes, stigmas and social and physical environments that already exist around the issue.