Adults say Life Ed helped them make better life choices

A new survey of more than 1000 NSW residents over the age of 18 found that 60% of people who went through the Life Ed program said it helped them later in life.

When asked to comment on how a visit from Healthy Harold had contributed to positive life choices, responses included: “It made me stay away from drugs”, “It taught me not to talk to strangers and not to take drugs”, “Made me aware of life choices and helped me teach my daughter life choices”, “I still remember the stranger danger talk” and “(it) taught me good life skills.”

Life Ed NSW CEO Kellie Sloane said the survey results reaffirmed that Life Ed is making a difference both short and long term to the healthy futures of NSW children.

“This figure is quite staggering. As adults, they are crediting a childhood visit from Life Ed with making better choices many years later. We have known this anecdotally but we now have independent research to back it up,” Ms Sloane said.

“Lessons learned in early school years really do make a difference when confronted by adult-sized problems later in life.”

Respondents were also asked to rate Life Ed NSW according to five key pillars of reputation: leadership and communication, operational performance, customer relevance, people and ethics.

• 94% of teachers and other stakeholders believe Life Ed offers services that benefit the community
• 92% agree that Life Ed has a positive influence on society
• 84% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Life Ed is an organisation they trust, as well as admire and respect

“After almost 40 years of operation, it is encouraging to see that we continue to remain a highly recognised and trusted organisation,” Ms Sloane said.

“This survey shows that NSW adults acknowledge that education is critical if we’re to make a difference to the longer term health outcomes in our community.”

*The survey of 1150 NSW residents was conducted by PureProfile.