Health promotion charity, Live4Life, which was born and bred in the Macedon Ranges has now reached more than 21,000 young people with its recent expansion in 2024.
The Live4Life model aims to support rural and regional communities and their young people through evidence-based mental health education, creating local partnerships to lead conversations about mental health and promote young leaders as ambassadors.
Last year more than 6000 young people received evidence-based mental health education thanks to Live4Life, which is a 90 per cent increase from 2022.
Since the program began in 2010, the total number of young people in rural and regional communities who have received evidence-based mental health education is now over 21,000.
Youth Live4Life chief executive Bernard Galbally said it is really exciting to be expanding the Live4Life model into new communities in 2024.
“Live4Life is led by young people and involves the whole community,” he said.
“The Live4Life model has been proven to create more highly networked communities, which enhance resilience during hard times and help to support young people living in regional and rural areas.
“We know that when we work together, we can change lives.”
In addition to reaching more than 20,000 young people, 561 adults were trained in youth mental health first aid in 2023, taking the total number of adults trained since Live4Life began to more than 2400.
This means for every 10 young people participating in Live4Life, there is now at least one adult fully trained to support them in a time of need.
Almost 60 adults also became accredited teen or youth mental health first aid instructors in 2023.
Live4Life said development of a core instructor base provides a critical resource for rural communities and has been shown to increase longevity and sustainability of the model.
In March the charity also won the Suicide Prevention Australia’s LiFE Award for Communities in Action (Victoria).
Live4Life is also a semi-finalist for the two 7News Young Achiever Awards; Spirit Super Connecting Communities Award and The Victorian Government Group Achievement in the Community Award.
