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West Gippsland students thrive

Friday, 20 Oct 2023
West Gippsland students thrive

Mental health remains a big concern for many Victorian schools and families, including in the West Gippsland area where rates of psychological distress for young people are high.

In the West Gippsland area of Drouin, nearly 22 per cent of young people reported feeling high levels of psychological distress, higher than the Victorian rate of 15.5 per cent.*

Thanks to Woolworths Supermarkets’ support of the Thrive Children’s Fund, we were able to visit Drouin West Primary School to help address this, encouraging students to use their voices to have open and honest conversations about the issues that are important to them.

From Thursday, 12 October to Friday, 20 October 2023, Life Ed visited the regional school to explore topics like how to stay healthy and how to have positive friendships with students from prep to Year 6.

“Students had a lot of input into the direction of the conversations.”
Teacher, Drouin West Primary School, VIC

Life Ed’s Thrive Children’s Fund was set up to ensure more children and schools in rural, remote and low socio-economic areas are able to access the latest evidence-based learning modules, so young people can develop critical life skills to use into the future.

Woolworths Supermarkets are the foundation partners of the fund, contributing $250,000 over the past two years which has helped more than 12,000 kids across the country benefit from the Life Ed program.

Life Ed, and the famous Healthy Harold, have played an important role in educating young Australians on a range of important topics including health and nutrition.

At Woolworths, we’re also committed to making health easier for all Australians. This means making healthier choices more affordable, encouraging seasonal fresh food through programs like Free Fruit for Kids, providing healthier recipe ideas, and making changes to our supermarket like removing kids confectionery from checkouts.

We’re proud to partner with Life Ed to help them continue to deliver valuable programs like this that aim to improve the health of young Aussies.
Sarah De La Mare, Woolworths Head of Community and Sponsorships.

*Source: Baw Baw Shire Health Data Report.

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About the Thrive Children's Fund

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