Empowering partnerships

In 2023, we saw Life Ed go from strength-to-strength as we transitioned from one major grant to an additional $6M investment from the Federal Government.

As part of our successful completion of all projects under the Government’s initial “Being Healthy Being Active” grant, we rolled out an array of new educational resources focusing on social and emotional wellbeing, developed and piloted First Nations resources with the NT communities we co-designed them with, and used the latest technology to enhance the way we deliver our programs. This innovation included trialling new virtual capabilities within our Educator apps and developing a Guide To Thrive Digital Pack to support teachers, parents and their children with their transition journey from primary to high school.  

We also entered into our second year of collaborating with the R U OK? Day team. With social and emotional wellbeing being an important facet of work in schools, we were proud to work with them on creating “Listening Legend” free resources for students and teachers, including a 10-minute interactive video workshop, worksheet and colouring badge, which garnered record engagement with almost 11,000 downloads. 

What do these initiatives have in common? They were all co-designed with the individuals and groups in which they were intended for. Because in order to make a meaningful impact, we must listen first. 

This rings true in all aspects of Life Ed’s work. This is how we’ve been able to evolve and stay relevant to the communities we have served for over 44 years. This will continue as we wrapped up the year by undertaking an evaluation in partnership with Life Ed South Australia, to gain feedback and insights from teachers about our current primary school offering.  This feedback will inform both what we deliver and the way we deliver it for many years to come. 

This evaluation will also form the basis of our future direction as we continue to plan and implement our “Foundations for a Healthy Future” project, which started in 2023 as the Federal Government confirmed their ongoing support for Life Ed by committing $6M to our work. 

This new grant will be rolled out from 2023 to 2026 and covers three key areas: 

• “Healthy Minds, Healthy Connections” – this covers our approach to develop educational resources to support students’ positive mental health and wellbeing. This will involve creating new, as well as adapting current respectful relationships and consent education resources for Years F to 6, as well as developing new digital literacy and online safety educational resources and materials for Years 1 to 4. 
   
• “Enhancing Educational Excellence” – is our plan for how we will implement recommendations arising from evaluations of the Life Ed program and measures to help maintain quality assurance across our programs, improving engagement and ensuring our programs are contemporary, agile and accessible.  
   
• “Strengthening our Sustainability” – incorporates activities to develop a clear plan for the future of Life Ed, including the development and implementation of our new strategic plan and building a long-term revenue plan.  

With our National Strategy guiding us across these key areas, we will continue to apply evolving best practice to our evidence-based programs to continually meet the changing needs of Australian children, classrooms and communities.