Youth Live4Life has announced that it has reached more than 2,400 students in the Ballarat region with critical youth mental health training.
The Youth Live4Life program is led by young people, and supports youth, parents and carers, schools, and communities to help them lead positive mental health conversations and reduce the barriers that prevent young people from seeking help.
Live4Life has established a strong partnership with the City of Ballarat, community organisations and secondary schools to deliver the singular purpose of improving youth mental health. Evidence-based, age-tailored mental health education has been delivered to students in 11 schools, including parents, teachers and coaches.
Youth Live4Life CEO Bernard Galbally said unfortunately we see mental ill health more prevalent in rural and regional communities than in metro areas.
"Suicide is the leading cause of death of young people in Australia and, what's worse, suicide is 40 per cent higher in rural and regional areas," Mr Galbally said.
"Live4Life is about generational change. If we can equip young people with the skills and knowledge to be able to look after their mental health and wellbeing and be able to support others, over time that's just going to build, and we will see that reduction in suicide across our rural and regional communities."
RACV has supported Youth Live4Life to implement the program across the Ballarat region. Youth Live4Life is Australia's only mental health education and youth suicide prevention model designed specifically for rural and regional communities. Key achievements for the Youth Live4Life Ballarat program in 2024 include:
- Training of 1,385 Year 8 students in Teen Mental Health First Aid
- Certification of 960 Year 10 students in Teen Mental Health First Aid
- Qualification of 111 adults in Youth Mental Health First Aid
- Development of 32 fully accredited Teen Mental Health First Aid instructors
- Training of 4 Youth Mental Health First Aid® instructors
- Looking ahead, Youth Live4Life Ballarat is actively recruiting students from all 11 participating schools for the next Crew and have commenced implementation of the program at Mt Rowan Secondary College.
RACV has renewed its funding for an additional two years to continue supporting Youth Live4Life's vital work in the Ballarat region.
RACV is proud of its long and ongoing contribution to the Ballarat region and is passionate about giving back to the local community. We have a newly refurbished RACV Ballarat store that opened this month, RACV Goldfields Resort in nearby Creswick and have recently upgraded electric vehicle charging infrastructure at 61 Curtis Street.
