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Completing pushups to shine a light on mental health and raise funds for charitable organisations? We're in!
This June 2022, the DDLS community participated in the Push-Up Challenge. Twenty-one legends from 4 teams participated. Our DDLS Team of pusher-uppers completed an astounding 30,064 push-ups and raised $1,280 for Lifeline and the Push for Better Foundation.
The Push-Up Challenge in Australia
In 2017, Nick Hudson and a small group of mates decided they needed to get back into shape for summer. So, the challenge was set - 3,000 push-ups in a month, no excuses.
From these early beginnings, the event has grown year on year. In 2019, Nick experienced depression before and after major open-heart surgery.
While recovering with time off work and needing focus, he threw his heart and soul into making The Push-Up Challenge a bigger event that could make a difference – to raise awareness and funds for mental health. They developed a website and tracker, did some promotions and ended up with almost 50,000 people who joined to push for better mental health around Australia. Their team raised $2.5M for mental health and participants completed over 50 million push-ups as part of the event.
The 2020 Push-Up Challenge was originally scheduled for June until COVID-19 hit. Deciding that the community needed a boost, they kicked off The Push-Up Challenge 2020 a month early in May. Despite the huge learning curve, they had 130,000 participants across Australia, banked 121 million push-ups and raised $5.1 million for mental health supporting headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation.
In October 2020, The Push For Better Foundation was officially established. Its goal is to bring people together to actively improve their mental health and/or the mental health of the community.
The Push-Up Challenge is now Australia’s largest mental health and fitness initiative, with over 174,000 Australians from all walks of life joining in, tohe push for better.
Participating in the Challenge
The Push-Up Challenge runs for 24 days. Participants aim to reach a total of 3,139 push-ups per person, representing the number of people who died by suicide in Australia in 2020.
Participants or legends as they're called can do classic push-ups, incline push-ups (on an elevated platform like a chair or bench), knee push-ups, wall push-ups, kneeling cantilever push-ups (a variation with feet on either side of or under an object). Alternatively, legends can opt to jump in and do air squats, resistance band pushes, air punches or boxing, cobra exercises, dolphin exercises, commandos, tricep dips, step-ups or sit-ups.
Participants can raise some money for the beneficiaries of the Push Up Foundation too. They can donate a few dollars to support mental health charities and spread the word with their friends, family and online professional community to grow support for the cause.
With 3 key foundations, physical health, mental health and connecting people, you can track your own and your team's progress online or on the app, get fit, learn about mental health and fundraise for mental health. Funds raised go toward Lifeline, Movember and The Push for Better Foundation.
Mental Health and Support in Australia
The National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing was conducted in 2007 and through that, it was found that an estimated 1 in 5 (20%) of Australians aged 16–85 experienced a mental disorder in the previous 12 months.
A survey commissioned by Mental Health Australia found that 82% of respondents view a party’s position on mental health and wellbeing and provision of related services as important in guiding their voting decision at the federal election last 21 May 2022.
Risk factors that exacerbate mental health problems include loneliness and social disconnection, higher costs of living and climate change.
The IMPPACT Team and Corporate Social Responsibility
DDLS believes in making the ICT space more accessible and safer. Every day, we continue this work. And this guides how we facilitate training sessions, build communities with our partners, employees and students, and enable people to thrive in the digital landscape of tomorrow.
The Push Up Challenge is the first of the ImppACT team's projects. We've brought together passionate people from across all DDLS areas and locations - Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines - to drive our corporate social responsibility (CSR). They make up our ImppACT team.
The team's name stands for "Information, Making a difference, Planet, People, Action, Community, Technology." This reflects the team's vision of being "a group of awesome people, coming together to act and impact people and our planet".
DDLS is in the process of applying to become B Corp certified. This will allow us to become part of an international network of organisations, with the collective vision of transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities and the planet. In line with this, the team has established Five Key Areas of Focus: People, Customers, Governance, Environment, and Community.
Learn about our ImppACT team, their achievements so far, upcoming projects and how you can get in touch to collaborate with them to create positive change. Visit: https://www.ddls.com.au/about-us/imppact/
