Increase in proportion of children and young people in education and employment at exit from Launch Housing support programs

Summary

• Prevention and early intervention is critical to breaking cycles of disadvantage and ensuring children and young people stay out of the homelessness services system. Programs like the Education Pathways Program (EPP) and Education First Youth Foyers support children and young people with their employment, education and health and wellbeing so they have solid foundations and skills to thrive
• 196 children supported in our Education Pathways Program
• 130 young people supported in Youth Foyers
• 74% of young people were enrolled in study, employed or both when they exited one of our Education First Youth Foyers.

Analysis

We’ve re-engaged more children with their schooling than ever before

Children are not broadly recognised as individuals in their own right in the specialist homelessness service, yet they suffer their own trauma and experience negative consequences just as adults do. Children need different supports and child-focused services to ensure their needs are met and that they are able to break the cycle of disadvantage they are in.

Prevention and early intervention is critical to breaking cycles of disadvantage and ensuring children and young people stay out of the homelessness system. For children, initiatives like the Education Pathways Program provides them access to vital supports like a speech pathologist and a psychologist to help them bridge their learning and developmental delays.

The number of children we support through EPP continues to grow year on year – see graph below. This year, we expanded EPP to Viv’s Place. The EPP supported 196 children, including 79 families across South Melbourne and Viv’s Place.

Number of children supported

Our other specialist children’s programs which provide holistic support for children affected by family and domestic violence or homelessness, have increased the number of children they support for the third consecutive year. This year, our children’s team supported 211 children.

Our children’s teams offer assessments, enhanced case management, therapeutic support, and recreational programs for children and families. We aim to develop children’s social, emotional and physical wellbeing and help to improve educational and developmental outcomes.

Our youth employment and education outcomes exceed the Victorian average

Young people, with the safety and security that only stable accommodation can provide, are achieving their goals, nurturing their talents, and building skills for life ahead. Despite the myriad of reasons that led to a young person’s experience of homelessness, we see young adults succeeding at education, finding employment, creating new friendship groups, building connections with the wider community and lifting their eyes to a new horizon.

This is the magic of our Education First Youth Foyers. We are seeing young people thrive and enjoy life no longer defined by their experience of homelessness. Of the 54 students who exited from our Education First Youth Foyers this year, an impressive 74% of young people were enrolled in study, employed or both when they exited. These are important protective factors to help ensure young people can lead independent lives outside the homelessness system. For comparison, only 27% of young people who were assisted by an SHS service were enrolled in study at the end of their support, and only 27% were employed.

Our Foyers are safe, inclusive spaces for young people.

Demographics

• 55% of young people supported by Foyers were women, 5% were gender diverse
• 9% of young people supported by Foyers identified as First Nations
• 16% young people spoke a language other than English (LOTE)

Looking ahead

Our goal is to create five new Education First Youth Foyers in Victoria. Based on our research, we can see they would have the greatest impact in Western Melbourne, Darebin, Dandenong, Casey and in the Werribee/Geelong region. For more information about Education First Youth Foyers and our future plans see our prospectus here (PDF, 2.43 MB).

We want to knock down doors and sit down with potential partners to figure out how we can scale up this proven solution to ending youth homelessness and transforming the lives of young people.

Thanks to our partners