TELUS supports ACT High School CPR Program in Victoria

VICTORIA, BC, 05/05/08

The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation is pleased to announce that TELUS is partnering with ACT and its provincial partners the BC Ambulance Service (BCAS) and the Ambulance Paramedics of BC (APBC) to bring lifesaving CPR training to all Victoria high schools.

TELUS is donating $19,600 as the lead community partner supporting implementation of the ACT High School CPR Program in Victoria-area schools. Thanks to this support, local youth will be empowered with the skills and knowledge to save a life.

“We are thrilled with TELUS’s support as a lead community partner,” says ACT Foundation Executive Director Sandra Clarke. “Without their important contribution, the program in Victoria would not be possible.”

The ACT High School Program is driven by a strong community-based model of partnerships and support. ACT fundraises at the community level to donate the mannequins, the training for teachers to become CPR instructors for their students, and the curriculum resources schools need to set up the program.

The funding from the TELUS Victoria Community Board will be used to buy mannequins which teachers will use to train all Grade 10 students at Belmont Secondary School in Langford, Pacific Secondary School in Colwood, Parkland Secondary School in Sidney, Claremont Secondary in Saanich, Stelly’s Secondary in Central Saanich, and the Saanich Individual Learning Centre.

In April 2005, the BC Ambulance Service (BCAS) and the Ambulance Paramedics of BC (APBC) established a partnership with the ACT Foundation with the goal of bringing the ACT High School CPR Program to all BC public secondary schools by 2010.

Volunteer BC Ambulance Service Paramedic CPR instructors train teachers. Teachers will then train hundreds of local Grade 10 students to perform CPR until professionals arrive.

Research indicates citizen CPR response can improve survival rate for victims of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by almost fourfold. With eight in 10 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurring at home, empowering youth with CPR training as part of their high school education will help increase citizen CPR response rates over the long term.

About the ACT Foundation
The ACT Foundation is a national, award-winning charitable organization dedicated to promoting health and empowering Canadians to save lives. ACT is driving a national campaign to establish CPR as a mandatory program in every Canadian high school. ACT raises funds for CPR mannequins for schools and guides schools in program set up. To date over 900,000 youth have been trained in more than 1,200 high schools across Canada. For more information visit:www.actfoundation.ca. National partners are AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, Pfizer Canada, and sanofi-aventis.