social support

I would like to thank everyone at STREAT for everything they’ve done for me. They have helped me through so much. Now I don’t have to be afraid of Nada anymore! Thank you Craig, Vanessa, Bec, Kate, Kim, Nada & everyone else who is part of STREAT for this wonderful experience!

Love you all.

Jamie

I have always had a passion for cooking, but I didn’t know where to start. From my earliest memories every Christmas my aunt would get me to help her to cook all of the yummy treats that we used to have like mince tarts and short bread cookies.

I left high school when I was 16. I didn’t like being there, and I thought that I could be doing better things with my time rather than being stuck in a classroom. So I disengaged myself from my family and from anyone else that I thought was going to try and tell me to go back to school and complete my high school education. I instead spent a lot of my time hanging around with my friends, doing nothing in particular.

All the while, I still had my strong passion for cooking. I successfully applied to TAFE to try to complete a hospitality course. I thought that I was in the right frame of mind to try this, but I was wrong, and I ended up dropping out of the course. A few months later I went back to TAFE and tried again. But again, I couldn’t complete the course and I left.

A few months after I left my TAFE course I was at Frontyard. I was doing an art class called Evolution and I kept saying that I could do a better job at supplying the lunches. This was because in my opinion and the opinion of everyone else who was there, that the muffins weren’t cooked properly and I kept banging on about it! So the worker who had gotten me into the Evolution course, then referred me to a place called STREAT.

A couple of weeks later I had my first interviews and I was put through to the next round. Once the second interview was complete I was then told I had been accepted into the program. I was so excited!

So that’s how I came to be in the STREAT program and I’ve enjoyed every minute that I’ve been here, particularly in the kitchen and on the carts as well. So far it’s been a lot of fun, but it’s also been a lot of hard work, and this time around I’m not going anywhere!

Well this question may be asked in the analysis of data that will be collected in the upcoming 2011 Census on 9 August, particularly if you are a young person.

There is currently a discussion paper being circulated from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) proposing significant changes to the methodology being used to analyse data collected relating to the amount of people experiencing homelessness within Australia.

After reviewing Chamberlain & Mackenzie’s ‘Counting the Homeless’ Report (2006) and applying a ‘new’ methodology, the ABS have revised the number of young people experiencing homelessness from approximately 21,000 down to 5,000 nationally.

Categories such as couch surfing and overcrowding which both currently fit within the cultural definition of secondary homelessness; will be removed from being applied to the census data analysis, reducing homelessness in this category by 58%.

Unlike Chamberlain & Mackenzie’s comprehensive analysis of the 2001 and 2006 census, data obtained from Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) and data from the Secondary School Survey will not be included. Instead, the ABS will form the homelessness estimate purely from raw census figures obtained on census night.

Federal funding for the National Census of Homeless School Students has been denied, severely limiting the number of young people who are attending school, but who are also experiencing homelessness to be counted. In 2006 an estimated 7000 young people were homeless but still attending school.

Homelessness is a hidden issue even with the rigorous methodology applied by Chamberlain & Mackenzie to previous Census counts. Australia has been in a unique position to have a consensus on homelessness figures at all, and this should not be compromised in the analysis of the 2011 Census data.

ABS data is used widely amongst services providing responses to young people to lobby for funding that will go towards tackling the issues that have led to young people experiencing homelessness.

Over quite a number of recent years  we have also seen the word ‘youth’ falling out of policy and funding descriptors amongst the homeless sector, further contributing to hiding levels of homelessness amongst young people in preference to more generic ‘one size’ fits all approaches.

The question: ‘Who will stand up and be counted?’ needs to be put to federal, state and local governments, who over recent years have claimed that homelessness will be halved by 2020. Will this be achieved by the way Australia chooses to count the homeless through the ABS?

These changes will have a significant impact on the lives of young people experiencing homelessness, as they will have to become 'rough sleepers' in order to be noticed. By this time any early intervention opportunities that could have been implemented will be lost and young people will have accumulated many more issues that will affect their ability to get out of the homeless cycle.

Australia – a lucky country – for some but not for all, and certainly not if you have the misfortune to be young!

For more information check out the Sector Briefing Paper.

Nada

When class 2 finished the STREAT program last week they told us how supported they’ve felt throughout their seven months with us. And that’s not just because we have an amazing team to support them, but because we have amazing customers, amazing online supporters and amazing partner organisations who show their support in a myriad of ways. Thank you for spreading the love – our youth have felt it!  As one of our graduating trainees said last week…

‘It feels like a family ought to at STREAT, a good kind of family, not like some families…’

So here’s one more thing you can do. Help us write a collective poem to Class 2 on what we hope for their future. All you’ve got to do is contribute one line.

The poem starts:

We hope…

You can tweet @STREATmelbourne using #hope, facebook, email comms@streat.com.au (make the subject line ‘Hope’), or hand deliver your poetry line to one of our cart sites.

And to follow the progress of the poem we’d encourage you to keep checking in at this blog.

Thank you!

(PS - We kinda hope that it goes without saying that by sending us your line you are consenting to STREAT Ltd using your content for creative and promotional purposes. But just in case.)