The Living Room will now be known as the Melanie Woss Living Room.
More than 35 years after losing their daughter Melanie to suicide, Brigid and Dr Ronald W. Woss AM have committed a transformational $4 million gift to Edith Cowan University (ECU) to support student wellbeing and ensure her legacy continues to help young people.
The gift will support The Living Room, the University's peer-led student wellbeing service, and secure its future for the next decade.
In recognition of Melanie's memory and the Woss family's extraordinary contribution, The Living Room at ECU City will now be known as The Melanie Woss Living Room.
The commitment will provide $400,000 annually over 10 years and will see the Woss family's lifetime giving to ECU exceed $4.2 million.
A legacy born from loss
Following the tragic loss of Melanie in 1989, the Woss family dedicated themselves to helping other young people experiencing mental health challenges.
This led Dr Woss to co-found Youth Focus, a leading not-for-profit organisation that delivers innovative and accessible mental health services and programs across Western Australia.
Dr Woss remembers Melanie as a character with her intelligence being "a dual edged sword".
"When she left school, she went to counsellors and said, 'What course should I do?"
"And they said, 'Melanie, you're so bright, you can do any course, any course at university you wish'.
"But it fed her insecurity, because she wanted someone to say, 'You should do medicine, or you should be an engineer' because what that person didn't know, and nor could you expect them to know, she was already suffering extreme self-doubt."
Dr Woss said he and his wife had done everything humanly possible to help their beloved daughter overcome her suicidal tendencies.
After her death, Dr Woss found Melanie had kept two diaries chronicling her struggles and through his grief, he read them both.
"My wife and I, made a decision to get that book published and I started receiving all these letters from kids all over Australia and the common denominator from those letters was, 'Thank you for saving my life'."
The overwhelming response from Melanie's book Alone by Myself made Dr Woss realise that sadly, many young people felt they were alone in their suffering.
"My experience is kids like that are not going to go to their mother or their father or someone that's 20 years older and discuss it," he said.
"What I found is that they will go to an environment where they feel comfortable and have the opportunity to talk to another student who's a few years older than them but has been through the trauma that they're going through."
With that in mind, Dr Woss knew students needed a place to go where they felt comfortable, which led to the establishment of The Living Room at the University of Western Australia.
"The Living Room is and will be the safe environment for students who are suffering stress," he explains.
"I want them to feel they can walk through that door, and someone will listen to them."
ECU Vice-Chancellor Professor Clare Pollock said the gift would leave a lasting legacy.
"Brigid and Ronald Woss have transformed personal tragedy into a remarkable legacy that supports countless students and will continue to do so for generations to come.
"The Melanie Woss Living Room at ECU City will ensure thousands of students have access to a welcoming place where they feel heard, supported and connected to their peers. The gift will also enable ECU to partner with universities across Australia to implement a similar model of student support.
"This extraordinary gift is an investment in student wellbeing, but it is also a powerful tribute to Melanie and the impact her story continues to have on our young people."
Melanie Woss
A vital service
Since opening at ECU in 2024, The Living Room has supported more than 2,200 students.
The peer support wellbeing service is staffed by 12 Peer Support Advisors (PSAs), current ECU students trained to listen and offer practical support for managing personal and academic challenges.
Students do not require an appointment and are welcome to drop in for an informal conversation with a PSA, who can connect them with additional supports available through ECU.
Dr Woss hopes the success of The Living Room at ECU will encourage other Australian universities to adopt similar peer-led wellbeing models.
"You're not alone. Don't ever think you're the only person that feels like this," he explains.
"There's lots and lots of people that feel like this, and we in The Living Room can help you feel a heck of a lot better."
