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Project Spotlight
Welcome to Givewell's Project Spotlight. Each month we highlight a project
for which a charity is currently seeking funds. We also provide details on
how to give directly for this project.
Founded in November 1996, Inspire Foundation is using the Internet to inspire young people to foster generosity and to build community. Project description The ultimate goal of Reach Out! is to prevent self-harm and suicide in young Australians. Reach Out! is a project using the Internet to help young people help themselves. The service assists young people to deal with life’s difficulties by providing information, support and links to services for young people, their friends and families and the professionals who deal with them. Australia has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world with somewhere between 25-45,000 youth suicide attempts each year by young Australians aged 15 – 24 years. The stigma that surrounds depression in our society contributes to this enormous problem. The service provides much needed information, assistance and referrals in a format that is designed to appeal to the youth audience. Reach Out! offers a comprehensive community service including information (fact sheets, issues, resources, media clips and links); mutual support (stories, profiles of well known people and how they have dealt with tough times and professional discussion forums); and information about location and how to access community based services through an Australia wide database searchable by address or service type, complete with descriptions of services and map of precise locations. Reach Out! also promotes skill development for youth around help seeking behaviour and coping through information about what services are available and how a young person can access a service in a specific local area and other general strategies on how to get through tough times. 75% of Australian teenagers are regular users of the Internet and Reach Out! has documented how this service addresses isolation and has saved lives. The service can be reached at www.reachout.asn.au The site also won the Telstra/AFR Internet Awards for a community service site in 1998 and again in 1999. Organisation description
Why Perpetual has made a donation to the Inspire Foundation "Perpetual was initially attracted to Inspire Foundation, because it was tackling a growing social problem nationally in an innovative way. Initially, they were rather sceptical because we didn’t realize that young people used the Internet so much. One of the core attractions was that Inspire Foundation tackles the issues in a holistic way, and is currently working to increase access to technology and other services in rural areas of Australia. Perpetual was concerned that the Internet had attracted a lot of negative attention, but believes that Inspire Foundation is showing that young people can also use it in a positive way. Perpetual closely monitors recipients of grants made from the company’s foundation. Inspire Foundation ensure that evaluation of this project occurs continuously through analysing service usage and via the feedback channels that users are invited to utilise. This is a useful mechanism to demonstrate the value of every donation made to the organisation. The service is also steered by a youth advisory board." |
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