2,600,000 Ontario students empowered to save lives

OTTAWA, Oct. 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today is World Restart a Heart Day, the theme of which is “All citizens of the world can save a life!” CPR saves lives and more than 2,600,000 Ontario students alone have already been empowered with CPR training by their teachers.

World Restart a Heart Day is a global campaign that takes place October 16^th every year with the goal to create awareness that everyone can learn CPR and to promote CPR training. The ACT Foundation’s mission supports this goal as a charitable organization dedicated to establishing FREE CPR and defibrillator training programs in high schools throughout Ontario and across Canada.

The ACT Foundation, working in partnership with the Ontario Government, has set up the CPR training program as a long term program in 780 high schools throughout Ontario. More than 2,500 teachers have been trained as CPR instructors for their students. These Grade 9 Physical Education and Health teachers empower more than 160,000 students every year resulting in a legion of lifesavers at school and in the community.

ACT is working in partnership with provincial partners the Government of Ontario and Hydro One, health partners AstraZeneca Canada, Sanofi Canada, and Amgen Canada, and community partners to bring lifesaving CPR training to all youth through Ontario high schools and has donated more than 20,000 mannequins for students to practice on to learn CPR.

With eight in 10 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurring at home or in public places, empowering youth with CPR and AED training as part of their high school education will dramatically increase citizen CPR response rates over the long term. And, early CPR combined with early defibrillation can increase the chance of survival for cardiac arrest victims by up to 75% according to Heart and Stroke Foundation.

“This program is seeing schools teach young people to act, to start CPR, and to grab the AED on the wall in public places and use that too. These schools are teaching life skills that save lives,” says Dr. Justin Maloney, Medical Director, ACT Foundation.

To date, the ACT Foundation has set up the CPR Program in more than 1,800 high schools nation-wide, empowering more than 4.2 million youth to save lives. See link to many rescue stories.”

About the ACT Foundation
The ACT Foundation is the national charitable organization establishing the free CPR and AED program in Canadian high schools. The program is built on ACT’s award-winning community-based model of partnerships and support, whereby ACT finds local partners who donate the mannequins and AED training units that schools need to set up the program. High school teachers then teach CPR and how to use a defibrillator to their students as a regular part of the curriculum, reaching all youth prior to graduation. ACT’s partners, committed to bringing the program to Ontario are the Government of Ontario, Hydro One and our national health partners AstraZeneca Canada, Sanofi Canada, and Amgen Canada.

www.actfoundation.ca or on Twitter @actfoundation #ACT2Save

For further information, please contact:

Jennifer Edwards
Director of Operations
ACT Foundation
act@actfoundation.ca
Tel: 613-729-3455
Toll: 800-465-9111
actfoundation.ca
twitter.com/actfoundation
instagram.com/theactfoundation
facebook.com/theactfoundation
youtube.com/theactfoundation

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cf0f106c-c23b-4d36-8b21-3a2c6bbec0b8

Ontario Students learning CPR

High school students empowered with CPR skills by their teachers through the ACT Program.