Inspire Foundation received the Social Media Award and a Special Mention in the Youth category at last night’s Suicide Prevention Australia 2012 LIFE Awards in Sydney.
The Awards acknowledged the outstanding work being done within the suicide prevention sector across Australia.
The Social Media Award recognised our use of innovation in delivering ReachOut.com services to young people in the spaces where they are spending most of their time online: social media.
The strategy of using social media as a first step, or an introduction to mental health and wellbeing services, has proved extremely successful.
“Many of our most engaged site users are coming to us via Facebook and Twitter. And having our youth ambassadors answering questions on Yahoo!Answers is driving a huge number of visits to ReachOut.com.
By taking conversations around mental health and wellbeing to the space where young people are, we’re able to build strong relationships, develop trust and rapport with young people, and ultimately create more opportunities to help them help themselves”, said Nathalie Swainston, our Senior Brand & Marketing Manager.
One of the many highlights for the year was a Facebook-based online consultation between the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and young people in the ReachOut.com community to help inform the National Health Curriculum. 315 young people participated in the conversation, with thousands more viewing the feedback and suggestions. The outcomes were included in a report for ACARA to further development.
Our Special Mention in the Youth category recognised the impact of ReachOut.com, Australia’s leading online youth mental health service, in engaging more young people than ever before.
The service achieved a 27% increase in engaged users, reaching 664,332 people. Importantly, 50% of the visits to ReachOut.com occur after 5pm and before 9am, supporting young people during times when most face-to-face services are unavailable.
The winner of the Youth Award was the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, in which Inspire Foundation is lead partner.
The Awards acknowledged the outstanding work being done within the suicide prevention sector across Australia.
The Social Media Award recognised our use of innovation in delivering ReachOut.com services to young people in the spaces where they are spending most of their time online: social media.
The strategy of using social media as a first step, or an introduction to mental health and wellbeing services, has proved extremely successful.
“Many of our most engaged site users are coming to us via Facebook and Twitter. And having our youth ambassadors answering questions on Yahoo!Answers is driving a huge number of visits to ReachOut.com.
By taking conversations around mental health and wellbeing to the space where young people are, we’re able to build strong relationships, develop trust and rapport with young people, and ultimately create more opportunities to help them help themselves”, said Nathalie Swainston, our Senior Brand & Marketing Manager.
One of the many highlights for the year was a Facebook-based online consultation between the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and young people in the ReachOut.com community to help inform the National Health Curriculum. 315 young people participated in the conversation, with thousands more viewing the feedback and suggestions. The outcomes were included in a report for ACARA to further development.
Our Special Mention in the Youth category recognised the impact of ReachOut.com, Australia’s leading online youth mental health service, in engaging more young people than ever before.
The service achieved a 27% increase in engaged users, reaching 664,332 people. Importantly, 50% of the visits to ReachOut.com occur after 5pm and before 9am, supporting young people during times when most face-to-face services are unavailable.
The winner of the Youth Award was the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, in which Inspire Foundation is lead partner.
