Youth Refuge
The service is being provided within a purpose-built youth refuge consisting of three separate buildings:
- 8-bed communal living building
- 2-bedroom family unit for young people and their children
- an integrated consulting centre
The design is based on leading specialist youth-focused practice.
What does the refuge offer?
Service delivery is based on the enhanced youth refuge model aiming to improve outcomes for young people as a part of a homelessness prevention approach that includes access to:
- short/longer term accommodation
- emergency relief such as food, material aid or medication
- immediate and short term services for general and specialist health; employment, education or training; legal and financial matters; recreational/social connectivity
Hope Street has launched the new youth refuge in partnership with the state government, philanthropic community, corporate sector, Melton City Council and local community members. This purpose-designed centre provides specialist wrap around support services for young people and young families experiencing homelessness. The First Response Youth Mobile Outreach Service works with the emergency accommodation centre, providing at risk young people with stable and safe accommodation and youth-specific supports.
How can young people access the refuge?
Young people must be:
- 16 - 25 years of age
- individuals or part of a couple / family (eg siblings, single parent and child, couple and child)
- (at risk of) experiencing homelessness and in crisis
- linked to the Melton local government area as well as neighbouring LGAs
Please contact our First Response Youth Refuge Team on 0413 539 830 or
OUTCOMES SUMMARY
Whilst construction of our leading purpose designed centre continued in Melton South during 2019-2020, crisis support and accommodation were provided to young people and young families via an interim model. Two private rental properties with capacity to support individual clients and families enabled specialist supported crisis accommodation to be provided for the first time, in the local community. The Youth Refuge:
- Assisted 119 unique individual clients, including five accompanying children aged between zero to five years of age; and
- 136 clients were newly assisted throughout the reporting period with 16 carried over from 2018-2019.
Of the newly-assisted young people supported:
- 44% were male and 56% were female;
- 7% identified as Aboriginal;
- 30% were from CALD backgrounds;
- the most common countries of birth were: Australia (77%), Sudan (4%) and Rwanda (3%);
- 4% had a disability and were in receipt of an NDIS support package;
- the most common age brackets were 20-25 years (68%), 18-19 years (24.4%) and 17 years (3%); and
- the most common reasons for seeking assistance were housing crisis (48%), housing affordability (12%), financial difficulties (8%) and family and domestic violence (7%).
Learn more about the young people supported, and our impact, from the report below.
Youth Mobile Outreach Service
The First Response Youth Mobile Outreach Service establishes the first innovative youth homelessness and support mobile outreach crisis response in the City of Melton growth corridor, with an annual target of 100 young people/families.
The local government area of Melton has no specialist homelessness crisis response service - it is at least 27km to the nearest homelessness crisis response service and a limited VLine train service severely impacts young people's access to services. This service will significantly address young people's experience and disadvantage from the lack of homelessness support services due to the geographical isolation from the lack of social infrastructure.
The First Response Youth Mobile Outreach Service enhances the emergency response model and service delivery to young people utilising the Youth Refuge funded by the State Government.
What does the mobile outreach service offer?
Available 7 days a week from 9:30am to 10:30pm, our First Response Mobile Outreach Team will find, identify and engage with young people and young families who are (at risk of) experiencing homelessness in the Melton local government area and surrounding suburbs. Team members will go to where they are located, for example:
- hospital
- school
- police station
- Centrelink
- other service/agency
A safe place to meet with young people can also be arranged if they are staying/sleeping on a friend's couch, in a car, in the park or the streets.
Young people will get help to be safe, navigate and access the Homelessness Service System and other services (eg health), find emergency accommodation, get food and/or material aid, and more. Support will be provided that is holistic, integrated, quality, effective and timely.
How can young people access the mobile outreach service?
Young people must be:
- 16 - 25 years of age
- individuals or part of a couple / family (eg siblings, single parent and child, couple and child)
- (at risk of) experiencing homelessness
- in the Melton local government area or surrounding suburbs - includes Aintree, Brookfield, Burnside - Burnside Heights, Caroline Springs, Cobblebank - Strathtulloh, Diggers Rest, Eynesbury Township, Fraser Rise, Harkness, Hillside, Kurunjang, Melton, Melton South, Melton West, Rockbank, Rural Balance, Taylors Hill and Toolern Vale
Please contact our First Response Mobile Outreach Team on (03) 9132 4300 or
OUTCOMES SUMMARY
The First Response Youth Mobile Outreach Service supported 129 unique individual young people during 2019-2020, with 139 newly-assisted clients:
- 46% were male and 54% female and included six dependent children aged 0-8; and
- nine clients were carried over from 2018-2019.
Of the young people receiving support:
- 12% were aged 16-17, 26% 18-19 years and 52% 20-24 years;
- 12% of clients identified as of Aboriginal heritage and 24% were from a CALD background;
- 148 support periods1 were provided, with an average length of 24 days of support provided;
- the most common countries of birth included Australia (75%), Sudan (6%), South Sudan (5%) and Ethiopia (4%); and
- 5% of young people were receiving an NDIS support package.
Clients self-reported the following challenges as being the main reason they sought support:
- housing crisis (32%);
- relationship/family breakdown (12%);
- inadequate or inappropriate dwelling conditions (12%);
- financial difficulties (8%); and
- domestic and family violence (7%).
Learn more about the young people supported, and our impact, from the report below.
Download
Note:
- Card holder reference in included kit instructions available for delivered kit only.
- Individual kit items available in our First Response - Melton folder.
- A support period is the length of time during which a client receives services from Hope Street. The support period ends when the client stops receiving those services, eg they exit one of our programs. Sometimes a young person/family (at risk of) experiencing homelessness requires more than one support period to ensure that they have every opportunity to secure stable accommodation and remain connected to their families, networks, education and employment. ↩
Donate Today
Need Help?