At Life Ed, we know the biggest impact happens early in childhood. Children learn their core values at a young age. That is why we are tackling tomorrow’s issues today.
Every child – no matter where they live, or what their circumstance – deserves to thrive. Our preventative health program reaches more than 600,000 Australian children each year. We make a difference by delivering evidence-backed, engaging education to children in their formative years, to build the skills they need to lead safe and healthy lives. In Australia, preventable chronic conditions such as arthritis, cancer, respiratory disease, heart disease and diabetes are the leading causes of death and disability. They cause eight out of every 10 premature deaths, and account for 80% of years lost due to ill health, disability or early death.
The five common behavioural risk factors are smoking, physical inactivity, poor nutrition, the harmful use of alcohol and the use of illicit drugs. Our childhood education program evolves constantly to help solve society’s largest challenges in health, safety and wellbeing.
We teach children and young people aged 3-13 the health, safety and wellbeing skills to make better decisions throughout their lives, creating a holistic impact on their long-term health.
But we cannot do this alone. Children today face complex challenges. This is why we partner with schools to deliver our vital health and safety messages to hundreds of thousands of children and provide useful and informative resources for teachers. We also continue our support in the home, giving families tools, tips and activities to ensure all Australian children are empowered to make safer and healthier choices.
The Life Ed program assists as it has a high and equitable reach of children by being able to access them while they are at school in a learning environment. Its ability to cover a range of topics that may otherwise go without being addressed or spoken about at school or at home is also critical.
I have to say, having resilience and grit has to be one of the most important lessons I’ve taken away from the Life Ed program. That’s definitely something I think is crucial for young people when navigating the path to adulthood, so I am so glad I learned those lessons early on.
The (Life Ed) program builds social and emotional learning in children - getting to the root of how to build safe and positive relationships, to develop empathy, communicate respectfully, including how to respectfully disagree with someone.
My dad had been a heavy smoker since long before I was born, but one day, I came home from Healthy Harold really upset that his habit was putting his health – and life – in serious danger. That day – almost 20 years ago! – he had his last cigarette and hasn’t touched one since.
