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About Us

Our Story

The Life Nav story starts with our founder, Bart Cowie-Kent. As a qualified social worker Bart noticed that most of the work and effort in supporting people’s mental health was reactive, responding to the growing number of people with mental health issues. At the same time, he was aware that many of the life events that were negatively impacting on people’s mental wellbeing were already known by the mental health professionals. Bart was keen to find a proactive approach to helping people through these challenging times with the aim of preventing them from becoming negative pivot points in their lives.

2020

Bart established Life Nav to provide one-on-one support to youth to help guide them through some of these critical periods. At the same time, he continued to research ways in which more people could be helped in similar ways more cost effectively, with a focus on preventing people from developing mental health issues that would have an ongoing impact on their lives and the lives of those around them.

2023

After considerable research and piloting the Life Nav App was ready for full-scale development. Having put all of the effort and finances into getting to this point, Life Nav needed a technology partner that was willing to build and provide the App through a revenue share partnership – fortunately Insiightful was willing to be that partner. With this work underway, Bart also realized that for his vision to be achieved, Life Nav would also need to change.

2024

Through 2024, Life Nav committed to becoming a social enterprise, updating its corporate structure, sourcing a social investor, recruiting an Advisory Board and commencing the process of becoming formally recognized as a social trader.

2025

A significant milestone will be reached as the Life Nav App will become available for partners looking to support youth through circumstances that are known to challenge people’s mental health, such as those that are responsible for international students, apprentices, and professional sports pathways.

Our App

The inspiration for the Life Nav App came from conversations with coaches, parents and participants in professional sport pathways. There was an acknowledged issue with the mental health of participants particularly through the pre-season selection process. As one coach said “It's tough, we know that the kids that don’t make the team often go off-the-rails, but my focus has to be on those that do make the team”. Life Nav wanted to find a practical solution to ensure that broken dreams did not become broken lives. So, we started designing an app that would support individuals through known periods of challenge.
Over two years we combined our social work skills and knowledge with experts in mental health research and technology to develop a pilot program. We then refined the app and got input from focus groups and UX design experts to create the Life Nav App. In the process we uncovered that there was a much broader application. We are truly excited to share the Life Nav App and look forward to sharing your journey.