VicHealth

Do you remember where you were when Cathy Freeman won Olympic gold?

Iconic sporting moments have the power to inspire and bring us together as a community.

That’s why we’re pumped to hear Fed Square and all Westfield shopping centres will be official live sites for the Olympic and Paralympic Games from Paris, offering the chance to cheer on our incredible athletes with family, friends and community.

There’s even tools and resources if your community group wants to host their own watch party.

check out the link in our comments to find out more about how you can share Olympic moments with your friends and neighbours.

And if you know of other free live sites, drop a comment below!

The bus driver isn’t the only person you should be thanking if you catch a bus in Ballarat.

The team at Ballarat Community Health have been hard at work developing and rolling out a campaign to help young people understand the dangers that va**ng poses to their mental and physical health.

It stars Ballarat locals – and it’s rolling out on radio, in theatres and even on this bus!

Congratulations, team – it looks fantastic.

Vapes contain poison, heavy metals, and lithium-ion batteries that can explode, making them too dangerous for landfill.

Imagine what they're doing to you.

All parents want to give their kids the best start in life - and food and drink manufacturers know that.

That’s why they aggressively market things like sugar-packed “toddler milk” at $20, $30 or even $40 a can.

The reality is, for most toddlers – the best things you can give them to drink are plain old water or milk, and they’ll be totally fine eating toddler-sized bits of what the rest of the family eats.

So you can rest easy – and save a bit of money, too.

Need a new podcast for your commute? We’ve got you.

Check out Thrive Cast – it's a podcast for young people, by young people, tackling the big challenges around mental health, culture, and equity.

It’s designed, written and hosted by young people from the Tiaal Mi Goa community group.

“Tiaal Mi Goa” loosely translates to “Good Mental Health” in Nuer, a language spoken by South Sudanese and Ethiopian people.

The group came together in early 2022 to find ways to improve the mental health and connection of young people in the Ballarat region.

And we’re proud to support their work, in partnership with Multicultural Arts Victoria, Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY) headspace Ballarat

🔗Check out the link in our comments for season one on Spotify.

We’re helping flip winter hibernation on its head – with FLIP Festival.

The cold weather can make it all too tempting to stay inside through the colder months, but we know that the isolation that comes with it can affect mental health.

That’s why we’re proud to be supporting FLIP Winter Children’s Festival in Mount Alexander Shire.

It’s a program of events for kids and their caregivers to come together in relaxed environments and stay connected through winter.

There’s plenty of free (and warm) events on offer – check out the full program in the comments.

Feel like you’re being bombarded with ads for unhealthy food everywhere you look?

Well, you’re not wrong.

Cancer Council Victoria has spoken to high school students around Victoria – and they reported that higher levels of exposure to unhealthy food and drink advertising is directly tied to a greater likelihood of trying (and nagging for!) those same foods and drinks.

Targeting our kids with advertising is one of the sneakiest ways that unhealthy food companies drive sales – and we’re sick of it.

Our CEO Dr Sandro Demaio joined ABC Melbourne Afternoons yesterday to talk about how we can better protect kids from unhealthy food ads.

We'll pop a link in the comments.

These smiling faces are part of the early careers network here at VicHealth.

They’re all future health promotion superstars – and that means they need to understand the ins and outs of how the laws that influence our health are made.

So last week, the team took themselves on a tour behind the scenes at Parliament House.

And we’ve got to say – they’re looking right at home!

Grand Designs 🤝 Masterchef 🤝 Lowanna College

Last year, Lowanna College kicked off a renovation of their canteen area.

With the deep fryer on the scrap heap, they decided it was the perfect time to freshen up the menu too.

This month, the Latrobe Valley school’s brand new cafe has opened, with plenty of healthy options.

There’s a new salad and sandwich bar and a rotating menu of quiches and focaccias - and the best part is it’s more affordable for staff and students too.

Best crossover episode ever.

It was a who’s who at the zoo last week, when we joined Zoos Victoria’s inaugural Careers Expo.

The expo is all about giving students a glimpse into some future jobs that might not be covered in your average careers session in school – and for us, that includes talking to young people about health promotion and how VicHealth focuses on creating a healthier environment for everyone.

It’s part of our partnership with Zoos Victoria, working with the North Melbourne and Flemington public housing communities to build relationships and social connection.

Eating good food brings so many benefits – it nourishes our body, gives us energy and above all brings us joy.

But sadly, too many older Australians miss out on enjoying delicious, healthy food.

And food legend and advocate Maggie Beer is trying to change just that.

She’s teamed up with the ABC to help residential aged care facilities to improve the food they serve – and the quality of life for their residents.

Check out the link in our comments to tune in to Maggie Beer and the ABC’s new three-part series, "Maggie Beer’s Big Mission, on ABC iview this month, where she’s stirring up an Australian first-of-its-kind experiment for better care through food.

Check this out.

We headed down the Western Highway today to visit our friends at Ballarat Community Health - and they gave us a sneak peak of these new “No Smoking or Vaping” signs they’ve designed for schools in Ballarat.

They’ve even got a QR code that links back to BCH’s quit smoking support services.

Incredible work - we can’t wait to see the signs at their new homes!

Every month, our CEO Dr Sandro Demaio hosts the Conversation Hour with Richelle Hunt on ABC Melbourne.

And this month, in the spirit of NAIDOC Week, we passed the mic – literally – to a champion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation Inc CEO Aunty Dr Jill Gallagher.

Huge thanks to Aunty Jill and special guests Dr Ngaree Blow from the Wurru Wurru Health Unit at Melbourne University, Geraldine Fela from Macquarie University, and Dr Kirsty Jennings, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Deputy at the RACGP.

Check out the link in comments for the full chat:

Running out of ideas? We’ve got you.

Our fun food activities are perfect inside entertainment for the school holidays, and give kids a chance to learn about good, healthy food.

Sure beats a tenth spin of Unicorn Academy.

Find a link in the comments.

For us here at VicHealth, NAIDOC Week is a time for us to show up, listen and learn from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

And it’s an opportunity to celebrate blak excellence, too.

So last Friday night, we headed along to the Eastern Metropolitain Region NAIDOC Ball.

Bringing events like the EMR NAIDOC Ball to life takes a lot of work from a lot of people – and we’re proud to have played a small part in bringing this celebration of community to life.

We’ve also attended some beautiful flag raising ceremonies on Wurundjeri land in Narrm (Melbourne) and on Gunaikurnai country.

There’s still plenty of events running throughout the week – we'll pop a link to the NAIDOC calendar in the comments so you can find one near you.

There’s a good reason that sensory play – like sandpits and water tanks – is so popular with our little ones.

Giving kids the opportunity to explore their senses through play helps them develop a healthy curiosity about the world.

That’s why we’re supporting Castlemaine Art Museum and RMIT Culture to bring The Children’s Sensorium to Mount Alexander.

The Sensorium is designed to engage all five senses – sight, touch, sound, smell, and taste – in a way that encourages creativity and resilience in kids.

And with creative direction from Boonwurrung elder N’Arwee’t Carolyn Briggs, it’s also an incredible opportunity for kids to connect with Kulin Country.

We’re proud to support The Children’s Sensorium alongside Mount Alexander Shire Council.

Check out the link in our bio for more details.

We know that sport brings people together.

But this is massive.

Last week, Southern Aboriginal Sports ran a three-day NAIDOC basketball tournament with hundreds of participants from right around the state.

It brought Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young people together to celebrate community, culture – and a healthy bit of competition, too.

Whether it was your first time taking to the court or you’ve got a few seasons under your belt – congratulations to all the teams that entered.

And a huge congratulations to the team at SAS and all the Aboriginal community groups, sporting associations, families and carers around the state who made this tournament happen.

We’re proud to be supporting your incredible work.

There’s plenty more smiles where these came from.

4,697, in fact.

That’s how many little farmers, truckies, grocers, chefs (and parents) visited our Secret World of Food popup at Melbourne Museum.

It was all about sparking curiosity about the journey food takes before it reaches our plate, and starting a lifelong appreciation of fruit and veggies.

If you missed it, the good news is that you can tap into that sense of curiosity in your own kitchen.

Check out our top tips for getting kids interested in good, healthy good at the link in the comments.

Clear your diary – because it’s NAIDOC Week.

NAIDOC is a celebration of excellence, strength, survival and community within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

And you can show your support by getting involved in one of more than 60 events being run around the state.

We’ll pop the full link in the comments.

Being part of Upfield Junior Soccer Club is about more than just winning games.

Last year, club leaders recognised that kids in the community were being targeted with fast food ads – and they decided to do something about it.

They applied for one of our Jumpstart grants and used it to launch their very own healthy eating program for local kids and their families.

It’s called “Middle Eastern Kitchen at Soccer”, and it has transformed the club’s kitchen into a safe and inclusive space. Young people in the community can learn to cook healthy traditional foods from all the different cultures that make up the Broadmeadows community.

Our CEO Dr Sandro Demaio joined local MP Kathleen Matthews-Ward MP and President of Upfield Soccer Club, Wally Hanna to check it out last week.

Words aren’t the only way we communicate with each other.

Each change in posture, eye gaze and even micro-expression can tell it’s own story.

That’s what trans and gender-diverse community advocates want us to know.

So they’ve teamed up with the State Government on a new campaign.

It’s called “The Unsaid Says A Lot”, and it shows just how those tiny changes in body language can make someone feel accepted for who they are.

We’ll pop a link in the comments with more info about the campaign.