STREAT welcomes class 1 of trainees

For the last couple of weeks our whole team have been coming and going, some going home sick for days with a weird bug going around the office, others trouble-shooting a myriad of cart electricity or sink issues, others locked in trainee interview sessions for weeks or preparing our orientation program and course materials.

But today we emerged from our own little worlds and gathered to welcome Class 1 to STREAT. We were united by a collective passion to creatively stop youth homelessness using the open marketplace.

We are under no illusions about the difficulty of this task. If stopping youth homelessness was as easy as it sounds it would have been solved long ago. And one only need hear the stories of our youth to understand the complexities of our task.

Our youth have stories of abuse and neglect. Stories of drug or alcohol addictions from the womb. Stories of tragedy and trauma. And stories of living precariously on the edge of our society.

But woven amongst these stories are also stories of hope and youthful optimism. Stories of perseverance and resilience. Stories of compassion and love. Stories of change and transformation.

Today we welcome Justin, Dale, Jennifer, Rayne, Imogen, Andrew, Jamie, Bahareh and Damien. They are our reason for existence.