WATCH: The University of Newcastle has teamed up with local non-profit organisation HealthWISE and the NSW government to train university students to take the reins on a health program for local kids. Video by Jonathan Hawes
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00:00 Well what an exciting program to have here today where we're hosting the Sousa program,
00:04 a wonderful program sponsored by our local Healthwise, one of our non-government organizations
00:09 absolutely involved in health outcomes and preventative health. These students will be
00:14 going into schools and working in a peer-to-peer led program that will support I guess healthy
00:21 lifestyle but work in such a way that in that peer-to-peer training year 10s to then talk to
00:27 others and younger students that we're speaking their language. I'd like to I'd like them all to
00:32 be able to realize that they can be their own motivation, they can start to think how they
00:36 can increase their own health and you know start to engage and realize that they can be better
00:41 versions of themselves. So this program is the Students as Lifestyle Activist program,
00:47 it's a peer-led approach in where we train university students to deliver a one-day
00:53 workshop to year 10 students at a high school and the benefit of that is that those year 10
01:00 students then will deliver four lessons to either year seven or eight students. It's been really
01:05 good learning about it and I'm excited to go into some rural schools and yeah share the information
01:10 I've learned. You bring in university students and they're cool and that makes a huge difference in
01:16 the classroom to engagement for that those year 10 students who are there in the audience and
01:20 they love to get involved. What's so exciting about coming out to Tamworth is actually our
01:25 partnership with the HealthWise and the University of Newcastle. This is an opportunity for work that
01:31 we have developed in Western Sydney to be able to reach into areas which is most needed especially
01:39 our rural communities and having our future health professionals from the University of Newcastle go
01:45 out and get to these schools and be role models so that we can get a health workforce that is ready
01:52 and out there in both in health and education helping make a difference. We've got five local
01:58 high schools participating, it's just getting bigger each year. We'd love for this to be
02:03 sustainable so we're looking to the future to do so for many years ahead.
02:07 you
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