Quote

Useful Fact

FriendLine is for anyone who needs to reconnect or just wants a chat.

All conversations with FriendLine are anonymous and our friendly volunteers are ready for a yarn and to share a story or two.

The Seniors Connected Phone Support Service is funded by the Federal Department of Social Services.

All Australian seniors are welcome to call FriendLine for a friendly chat or more connection. They hope to hear from you!

Phone: (02) 7226 1708 or Free call 1800 424 287

The support line is open: 10am – 8pm, 7 days a week

Instagram Highlight

Follow us on Instagram to access posts like this one!

If you are a little busy, we provide a monthly wrap up on our Instagram so you don’t miss a thing. August wrapped looked like this:

Wrapping up August content. Here we goooo 🎀 Can you pick up a couple of themes?

🌊Zac @saltwaterdreamtime shared the story of the 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗳𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱

💌Our 𝚎-𝚗𝚎𝚠𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 Quickword dropped

💬How to define 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 with Joy from @learningconsent

🤯𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝙾𝚗 𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝙼𝚒𝚗𝚍 - 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀

❤️𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 & 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 on the 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚂𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚑 𝙷𝚞𝚋

🐴𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀, 𝗘𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 & 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚐

🤙Caddyshack & Zac at 𝗡𝗔𝗜𝗗𝗢𝗖

📚𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚆𝚎'𝚛𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 - 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗲𝘅 by @yumistynes & @drmelissakang

🙌@playsafensw 𝗦𝘆𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘀, testing & condoms

Campaign & Events

The Home Stretch is a national campaign, formed to seek change to the current leaving care arrangements for young people in state care. In brief, to extend the leaving care age from 18 until 21 years.

“Out of home care refers to the care of children and young people up to 18 years who are unable to live with their families (often due to child abuse and neglect). It involves the placement of a child or young person with alternate caregivers on a short or long term basis” (Victorian Department of Human Services, 2007).

For far too long they have witnessed poor outcomes for kids being required to leave the care system on or before 18 years. Many, who are required to leave their care setting at this age, become homeless, involved with the criminal justice system, unemployed or a new parent within the first 12 months of being exited from care. The termination of care by state governments at 18 years is not consistent with parenting that is seeing most young people remain home well into their 20’s.

Know Your Websites

This Digital 2022 report highlights everything you need to know in relation to the internet, mobile and social media usage and behaviours across the globe.

As we learned to live alongside the pandemic, 2021 saw social media users increase once again, whilst the average daily time spent using mobile phones showed no signs of slowing down.

As a result, social media and mobile apps are now leveling up from their role as second screens.

Global population: The world’s population stands at 7.91 billion in January 2022, with the annual growth rate of 1.0 percent suggesting that this figure will reach 8 billion sometime in mid-2023. Well over half (57.0 percent) of the world’s population now lives in urban areas.

Global mobile users: More than two-thirds (67.1 percent) of the world’s population now uses a mobile phone, with unique users reaching 5.31 billion by the start of 2022. The global total has grown by 1.8 percent over the past year, with 95 million new mobile users since this time last year,

Global internet users: Global internet users have climbed to 4.95 billion at the start of 2022, with internet penetration now standing at 62.5 percent of the world’s total population. Data show that internet users have grown by 192 million (+4.0 percent) over the past year, but ongoing restrictions to research and reporting due to COVID-19 mean that actual growth trends may be considerably higher than these figures suggest.

Global social media users: There are 4.62 billion social media users around the world in January 2022. This figure is equal to 58.4 percent of the world’s total population, although it’s worth noting that social media “users” may not represent unique individuals (learn why). Global social media users have grown by more than 10 percent over the past 12 months, with 424 million new users starting their social media journey during 2021.

Who are

The Victorian Pride Centre is the first purpose-built centre for Australia's LGBTIQ+ communities.

It is a place to pave new directions for LGBTIQ+ communities, while honouring and celebrating their brave – and at times difficult – past.

It is home to practical and supportive services and will grow into a destination for visitors from across Australia, and beyond.

The Victorian Pride Centre houses major and important LGBTIQ+ resident organisations, and provides flexible and multi-use spaces for hire, including, meeting rooms, rooftop terrace, co-working spaces, a theatrette and gallery.

The Centre serves as a hub for LGBTIQ+ groups and organisations to share ideas and resources and to further their work in supporting equality, diversity and inclusion across the state.

On the Blog

Way before the controversy in July 2023 over Welcome to Sex by Yumi Stynes and Dr Melissa Kang being pulled from the shelves at Big W, we featured their previous books Welcome to Your Period, Welcome to Consent and Welcome to Your Boobs in the series on the Caddyshack Project April 2021 blog “Tearing Open the Sealed Section”.

Just to recap, Welcome to Sex is a frank, age-appropriate introductory guide to sex and sexuality for teens of all genders, from the creators of the best-selling guides. We agree with the ABC that the important thing for concerned parents to remember is that sex is an important topic we can't ignore.

Sex education books combat misinformation — and empower young people with essential information to keep them informed and safe.

Dr Ollis from Deakin University says: " What a number of studies shows is that by providing comprehensive sexuality education, young people actually delay the onset of sexual activity."

When it comes to teachable moments around sex ed, along with Dr Kang’s and Yumi Styne’s books, we can also recommend Talk Soon Talk Often.

Resource

This video was produced by the Department of Health in Western Australia and is intended to raise awareness of Aboriginal People’s Journey of health and wellbeing.

They respectfully acknowledge Tim Muirhead, Danny Ford, the Department of Health and the Aboriginal Health Policy Directorate.

Journey of health and wellbing is a ten minute watch and truly worthwhile.

Diary Dates

Our final two free webinars for 2023 are coming up. Join us as we host Eliza Basheer, Sexual Health Promotion Program Manager from the NSW STI Programs Unit on the importance of a national sexual and reproductive health school curriculum and Josef Garrington from ACON and a panel on HIV.

Complete free modules like Doin it Right, Nitty Gritty & Because You Care in your own time.