The Starlight Children's Foundation and Optus today announced a significant, long term exclusive telecommunications partnership, to sponsor Starlight's Livewire initiative - extending the reach of Livewire to 26 hospitals across the country.
The partnership was unveiled at The Children's Hospital at Westmead in Sydney where Optus has contributed funding and support to enable wireless internet connection in 15 wards, as well as the deployment of 24 purposely built Livewire On Wheels bedside hospital trolleys.
Through Livewire's hospital outreach, it aims to have a significant impact on the social and emotional wellbeing of young Australians aged between 10 and 21, currently spending long periods of time in hospital, as they receive treatments for a serious illness, chronic health condition or disability. There are an estimated 600,000 children admitted to hospitals each year.
Optus' support for Livewire makes it possible for young people to stay connected during long periods of separation caused by ongoing treatment and to get the support that they need from other young people facing similar challenges.
"At Optus we believe anything is possible with communication. Livewire is a key national community program that allows young people to communicate and support one another in a safe environment through Optus' wireless broadband technology," said Maha Krishnapillai, Optus Director of Government and Corporate Affairs.
"Today's launch of Livewire On Wheels at The Children's Hospital at Westmead is a fantastic innovation to help young people feel less isolated through sharing their experience with other young people who understand what they are going through while undergoing treatment in hospital.
"We look forward to more young people accessing resources like Livewire as the initiative rolls out to more hospitals, especially in regional Australia," he concluded.
Louise Baxter, Starlight Chief Executive said, "We are excited about the sponsorship of Livewire by Optus. It is a great fit for Starlight and helps Livewire to achieve its goal of connecting young people living with a serious illness, chronic health condition or disability anywhere in Australia. Starlight greatly values our long standing partnership with Optus who has been supporting Starlight's goal to help all seriously ill and hospitalised children for more than 16 years."
Featuring a specially designed hospital bedside trolley, with PC hardware and a wireless internet connection, Livewire on Wheels offers young patients a free, safe and supportive online community to hang out, connect, share experiences, creatively express themselves and know that they are not alone in their situation. Patients can play games, listen to music, watch videos, create blogs and chat online with other members.
Said Livewire Managing Director, Omar Khalifa, "With the tremendous support of Starlight, other charities, hospitals and medical professionals, Livewire has quickly become the leading online community for young people living with a serious illness, chronic health condition or disability in Australia.
"These young people often experience unique challenges based on their illness or disability and treatment regimes – challenges which can lead to feelings of severe isolation, boredom and a lack of control over their daily lives.
"With a full suite of community tools, including chat, blogs and forums, Livewire is a fun place for young Australians to hang out and provide invaluable support for each other," he concluded.
Gilly Paxton, Director Community Relations and Marketing, The Children's Hospital at Westmead added, "Livewire On Wheels will provide a great distraction for our patients, help them better understand their illness and connect with other young people facing similar challenges so that no one feels alone."
The partnership with Optus comes as preliminary findings from a research study1 conducted by Murdoch University, challenge existing pre-conceptions of how young Australians use and engage with technology. The research, conducted by Dr Amanda Third and Dr Ingrid Richardson from Murdoch University's Centre for Everyday Life (CEL) argues that face-to-face engagement is not always the most effective form of communication to support young people's wellbeing, and that in fact online technologies can better enable young Australians to feel socially connected, with a sense of belonging.
The study found that for young Australians living with a serious illness, chronic health condition or disability, access to online content, blogs and the ability to meet new friends via online chat and social networking can help form strong friendships that, in most cases, are more important than their friendships offline.
Dr Third Senior Lecturer/Director of the Centre for Everyday Lifesaid, "We found that despite the fact these young Australians have never met each other, and do not know each other in the real world, their online friendships are central to their wellbeing and the fact that they have each other is a really important part of their daily life. In every instance, their online friendships are more important than their offline friendships."
Unlike other social networks, Livewire is a secure, moderated community tailored to the needs of its members. Livewire chat hosts and moderators are trained in adolescent health, and are online seven days a week to ensure that Livewire remains a supportive and fun place to be. Livewire works closely with the Australian Federal Police to help ensure all members of Livewire remain safe while engaging with the community.
This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government under the Clever Networks program, Starlight and major partners. This funding has enabled Livewire to develop a unique and valuable program that will connect, support and empower its members.
Any young Australian aged over 10 and under 21, who is currently living with a serious illness, chronic health condition or disability who wishes to join Livewire or find out more information should visit www.livewire.org.au or contact member.services@livewire.org.au.
For further details or to arrange an interview please contact:
Jacqueline Fisher, Howorth, Ph: 02-8281 3856, Mob: 0416 563 556, Email: jacqueline@howorth.com.au
Carla Dovgan, Howorth, Ph: 02-8281 3817, Mob: 0411 437 411, Email: carla@howorth.com.au
Simone Bergholcs, Optus Corporate Affairs, Ph: 02 8082 7850
About Livewire.org.au
Livewire.org.au is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Starlight Children's Foundation and is supported by funding from the Australian Government under the Clever Networks Program, Starlight Children's Foundation and in-kind support from Livewire's launch partners. www.livewire.org.au
About the Starlight Children's Foundation
Since 1988, the Starlight Children's Foundation has been providing innovative programs designed to lift the spirits of these children, young people and their families when they need it most. There are over 600,000 child and teenager admissions to Australian hospitals every year and currently Starlight is only able to reach "1 in 3". Starlight's ultimate goal is to enable every seriously ill child, young person and their family the opportunity to access and benefit from Starlight's innovative programs. www.starlight.org.au
About Optus
Optus is an Australian leader in integrated communications. The company specialises in a broad range of communications services including mobile, local, national and long distance telephony, business network services, internet and satellite services and subscription television. For us, corporate responsibility and business success go hand in hand. Optus believes that its responsibility as a leading corporate is more than just solid financial performance. Our responsibility to our society is also important. We consider that community, environment and workplace are important pillars of our corporate social responsibility. Optus is the exclusive telecommunication partner of Starlight and sponsor of Livewire. Through this program Optus aims to remove barriers that may prevent people from accessing the benefits of technology. We partner with organisations that work to improve the welfare of the communities in which we operate and aim to remove barriers that may prevent people from accessing the benefits of technology. For more information please visit www.optus.com.au/csr
About the Centre for Everyday Life, Murdoch University
The Centre for Everyday Life (CEL) at Murdoch University is a world class research centre dedicated to the study of technology and culture in everyday life, with an emphasis on young people's day-to-day interactions with media and technology. Motivated by social justice values, the Centre undertakes cutting edge, qualitative research that focuses on technology's role as an enabler. Its researchers are at the forefront of new scholarship on the place of online and network communication technologies in the formation of identity and community. We have extensive experience collaborating with both commercial and not-for-profit organizations to achieve high quality research outcomes that can be applied to build capacity and improve service delivery, as well as contribute to the generation of rigorous research on the rapidly transforming contemporary media and technology environment. For more information about the Centre please visit: wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/cfel.
Notes:
1 Research was conducted nationwide with members of Livewire, between January – June 2009. Methods included online surveys and focus groups.