Think Before: A Student Safety Initiative has been developed to promote situational awareness to international students.

The Victoria Police, ISANA and the Australia Network, along with governments, ThinkBeforeinstitutions and other stakeholders across all states and territories have elected to try a new digital approach on safety to international students. Think Before delivers the message to students via the media with which they spend most of their time – social media, video sharing sites and SMS – to promote engagement and viral distribution.

The Think Before tagline reinforces the message that international students need to be aware of their surroundings, particularly late at night on public transport, and to plan their travel. The key safety messages have been translated into 13 languages and have been packaged into an animated video clip. The Think Before animation portrays ‘George’, a fictional character designed to resonate with international students in Australia. 

Think Before is available through its website, mobile, free Apple and Android applications and can be found on up to 60 social media and public video channels.

To promote Think Before to your international students, partners and agents, include a link on your website, send an email, adopt an SMS campaign and include information in your newsletters.

You can also spread the word and stay connected by joining the campaign's Facebook page and following Think Before on twitter.

You can also direct your contacts to the video animation at YouTube and embed this clip onto your website.

For more information about this initiative, please see the following attachments:

1.    Think Before background information (pdf 74 kb, rtf 184 kb).

2.    Tools that could be used when promoting Think Before (pdf 136 kb, rtf 101 mb).

3.   Telstra’s Desktop Messaging (TDM) Guide for those institutions who would like to implement an SMS campaign. Telstra’s Business Solution Helpdesk (1800 453 283) is the team to contact for any troubleshooting or advice on how to use TDM.

For more information on Think Before, please contact:

Larry Anderson: larry.anderson@AustraliaNetwork.com

Danielle Hartridge: danielle.hartridge@vu.edu.au