Receiver of the 2020 7News Young Achiever Awards - Group Achievement in the Community, CHASE is a volunteer-led charity that seeks to increase health education and engage in the community in underprivileged suburbs of Melbourne. CHASE’s youth-led mentoring program targets underprivileged populations, reaching 200 VCAL students annually across Melbourne’s North and West. Currently, we work with five schools: Copperfield College, Essendon Keilor College, St Albans Secondary College, Lakeview Senior College, and Brunswick Secondary College.

With your support, we have helped improve health literacy for over 1800 disadvantaged secondary students, and will continue to empower these students into becoming future community leaders. 

Our year-long program is conducted in two phases. First, CHASE volunteers run workshops where VCAL students are exposed to personal health and public health concepts. Second, VCAL students undertake projects designed to help solve self-identified health problems present in their local communities.

Our programs are evidence-based and built on best practices learned from medical professionals. We know that through empowering students we are empowering the community around them, thus reducing their chances of enduring poor health conditions, thereby reducing the high rates of preventable and long-term chronic disease within the northern and western suburbs.

Your donation will allow chase CHASE to empower more students to overcome health-related issues they will encounter. It will also allow CHASE to develop, promote and foster new and existing partnerships with local community organisations and health professionals. CHASE will be able to ensure that our volunteers, schools and students have all the resources they need available to them. As well as improving health literacy, we hope the CHASE Program improves access to higher education and professional pathways for students.