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Friday Oct 23, 2009
YouthNet launches LifeSupport Appeal
On WednesdayOctober 14, YouthNet launched its biggest ever fundraising and awareness-raising campaign, the LifeSupport Appeal.
The aim of the LifeSupport Appeal is to completely redevelop TheSite.org, allowing it to reach more young people with even better advice. We have big ambitions for the Appeal and want to raise £5mllion over three years to completely revolutionise our online support for young people.
Underpinning the Appeal is a fantastic piece of research commissioned by YouthNet and carried out by Professor Michael Hulme of Lancaster University. The report, Life Support: Young people's needs in a digital age, shows that young people now more than ever, lead hybrid lives and that the need help and advice online will be even greater for tomorrow's young people.
The Appeal got off to a great start at the House of Commons, where Right Hon. Tim Loughton MP, hosted an event for Professor Hulme to share his findings. This was then followed by a panel discussion with Professor Hulme, vlogger Charlie McDonnell and agony uncle Matt Whyman. The report and Charlie's description of how he interacts with the online world, sparked some interesting debate within the panel and the audience.
We then had a less formal event in the evening which was held at London's Living Room, which is above Boris' office in City Hall! As the room filled up, despite a few technical hitches, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. After Prof. Hulme's presentation, Hannah a 17 year-old TheSite.org user spoke incredibly movingly about how TheSite.org had helped her during some very troubled times in her life.
It seemed to sum up the reason why TheSite.org is so special when she said:
"If I hadn't used the internet when I was being bullied and had depression, I'm not sure I would have got through. I was too scared to speak to a parent or teacher because that would have meant repercussions, and I was worried about how they would react. Online nothing else can happen, you're making the first step."
The evening ended on a high note, when one of YouthNet's biggest supporters and founder member of our Development Group, John Donaldson, urged people to get involved.
To round off a fantastic day, the Media and PR team got some fantastic coverage of Professor Hulme's report and the Appeal in a range of media, such as BBC Online and Sky News.
Added to this, one of our key supporters, Yahoo! Answers, have not only given us a month's sponsorship package free of charge to raise the profile of the Appeal but Martin Clark, Community Manager has blogged about us on Yahoo Answers!
Find out more about the appeal.
Posted by Julie Reynolds ( 1:07 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
