Director – Armed For Life

 

Adam Przytula has been involved with running sessions in schools for over 22 years.

His passion for helping teenagers and adults with mental health issues, come from his own lived experience. Difficulty at home, parents divorcing at age 13 and being bullied every single day of high school life led Adam to struggle severely with mental health issues specifically anxiety and depression. Barely passing Year 12 and realising he needed help and did not receive it – led Adam to volunteering in a team in 1998 at age 18 and then became coordinator of that team for 5 years – PHYSI (PowerHouse Youth Services Inc) which won a number of community awards during Adams coordination.

Adam graduated at the end of 2010 with a Secondary Teaching degree from Murdoch University while working as a chaplain in a School and in 2011 created Armed For Life – running sessions in schools to focus on helping students build resilience and deal with mental health issues. 

In 2014 Armed For Life won the Telstra Australian Business Award in the Micro Business Category. Adam now runs Armed For Life full time with a team of speakers and performers running sessions and successful programs including The Resilience and Transition Programs as well as the BRAND NEW The Engagement Program, Barber Shop Program and SEL Classrooms Program. Armed For Life has worked with over 450 schools and spoken to over 950,000 students.

Adam has been working with youth for 22 years in some capacity, and always has and always will have a passion for helping teenagers dealing with the same issues that he struggled with himself. It is this passion coupled with his sense of humour, complete honesty about his own experiences, and a strong element of vulnerability that causes students and teachers to engage so well with the sessions run.