Project Youth September 2022 Newsletter

A message from our CEO

In August we highlighted Homelessness Week, during which we shared a series of videos on our social media about Youth Homelessness. If you haven’t had a chance, you can check them out on @projectyouthsydney Instagram or Facebook. 

Also last month I had the opportunity to attend the National Homelessness Conference in Canberra, which was a great opportunity to connect with other services with the single vision to advocate for a ‘National Plan’ to both address and end homelessness. One of the key issues that is needed in this plan is the provision of more social and affordable housing, however there is also a need for evidence-based policy, funding for support services, Not for Profits at the table to help make decisions, lived experience at the centre of the plan, long term funding agreements and a welfare system that does not penalise people for being disadvantaged. An important consideration is how young people are provided for in this plan. We will continue to advocate for a dedicated Youth Homelessness Plan that provides specialist support and housing options for young people.

I had a poignant reminder this week about how young people can lead around the issue of youth homelessness, when I was approached by a friend’s 8 year old son who had to do a speech at their school and he chose Youth Homelessness as his topic. He asked me two questions: ‘How do we fix homelessness?’ and ‘How can the community help?’. What a privilege it was to have a conversation with this socially minded young man about how we can all work together to end youth homelessness. Young people no matter how old can, and do have a voice in these issues. The one thing that came out of this conversation was that homelessness is not a choice! 

We also celebrated NAIDOC week and renewed our commitment to Get Up, Stand Up, Show Up. The young people in our Project Educate program spent a day cooking wattle seed damper, painting their journey on didgeridoos and experiencing a smoking ceremony. Our staff team also dedicated their quarterly meeting to discussing colonisation, intergenerational trauma and hearing stories from the experiences of our First Nations community. We recognise this is more than just a week and will be working with our local First Nations services and community to ensure we are culturally safe and appropriate for all the young people we serve.

Our newsletter this month explores 3 of our service areas and as always introduces you to one of our fabulous staff members and amazing young people.

Happy reading.

Jodie

Café Y:

Café Y is our wonderful thriving enterprise Café in Menai. We are so grateful to have so many loyal customers that continue to support us. We recently sadly said goodbye to Jen, our Café Y Manager as she spread her wings on a new hospitality adventure. It gave us pause to think about how to go forward with the Café. 

Café Y is a social enterprise that provides up to 50 young people per year the opportunity to work, train, conduct work placements and work experience, so the simple answer was – let young people run it!

We were fortunate to have Tash, who has worked at the café for a few years now and has been a very strong supporter of Project Youth after having been involved in some of our programs through her younger years. Tash confidently stepped into the Café Manager role and she now leads a team of young people who, without Café Y, would not have had the opportunity for sustainable employment at this stage in their lives.

Tash and her team have made a few changes to the menu and are adjusting to the pressures of running a community café. 

One of their new ideas was to have ‘LOVE’ vouchers that people could buy and gift to their loved ones or they can ‘gift’ them to a young person in Project Youth’s services. The first day we put them up we sold 2, both of them being gifted back to a young person facing disadvantage. It means a young person can come into the cafe and get a hot meal, it gives them a choice from the menu and an opportunity to sit and rest in a safe and inclusive environment. What a great idea to both support the café and a young person in need at the same time!

The next challenge they face is extending their catering offer and starting to serve more local businesses in the area. We look forward to seeing this grow over the next year.

If you want to find out more contact Tash cafey@projectyouth.org.au

Henry’s:

Henry’s provides semi-supported accommodation for 4 x 16–19-year old’s, meaning a youth worker is based at the property supporting the young people to increase their health and safety through building skills, resilience, and connections to society. 

Henry’s is special as all the essentials are provided over the 12 month stay, allowing homeless young people to move straight into a warm and responsive environment as well as space to maintain a focus on treating underlying issues and trauma. Henry’s is often the first home where a young person has felt safe and cared for, a place to wind down and reflect, to develop their identities, values, and self-worth. 

Young people tell us they love it at Henry’s as they feel protected, well supported, and connected. They say having a relationship with the worker permits trust, and their worker says having trust permits meaningful engagement. If you work at Henry’s you hear young people playing a musical instrument for the first time, affirm they deserve to be treated well by their partners, and take on your optimistic view of their future - including their successes with employment and support from specialised services. 

After moving on from Henry’s, whether this be reuniting with family or into our transitional housing, young people generally stay connected with the youth worker and reach out for support and conversation. One young person on finding comfort at Henrys this year stated,

“For years I used to go out every day but now that I feel safe I have been staying at home”

Options are important for young people, especially young people that are facing homlessness. At Project Youth we are very grateful to be able to offer a range of options for young people in crisis , through semi-independent like Henry’s and into transitional housing on a lease. If you want to find out more about all of our accommodation options at Project Youth you can see the details on our website www.projectyouth.org.au or contact support@projectyouth.org.au 

Studio Y:

Studio Y is a recording & production studio based at Project Youth in Menai. Studio Y has industry standard equipment & can produce professional recording & audio. Studio Y runs a program each year called ‘Sound Mind’ which uses music & creative art to engage with young people who face disadvantages. The Studio and Sound Mind program provides a space for young people to express themselves, their ideas and work through their emotions in a safe, inclusive and non judgemental environment which is supported by an experienced youth worker. 

Music is a very powerful medium for young people. It can bring calm and peace to thoughts and emotions, it can create joy and bring energy, it helps focus and concentration and it can also be social helping to form connections with support workers and peers. Music can be a safe and therapeutic practice for young people in distress, facing trauma, feeling disconnected or disengaged from themselves and others. Music allows young people to have a voice and a way to express themselves, their inner thoughts and/or their emotions. We have also seen music provide an amazing community of incredibly talented and creative peers, especially for young people struggling to find their place in society. 

Studio Y enables disengaged young people to access support services through music and is a great space to build rapport & relationships through playing, singing, writing or composing music.

One of the most important things our program does is storytelling - honest, raw, emotive, powerful stories of young people throughout their journey and experiences of life in all its hardships and all its joys. We invite you all to come on a musical journey with us through these beautiful stories - see links below.

Studio Y has produced some great works over the last year including the “Sessions 2022” EP & Jonathon Eid’s first single “Baby Steps” You can hear both these releases here:

https://soundcloud.com/you/tracks

You can watch the music video for the song “Holding On” featured on Session 2022 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sS_HlGdRhc&t=67s

We have some exciting plans for 2022 which we will continue to share on our social media platforms - stay tuned!

Our Studio program does not have recurrent or sustainable funding at the moment, so if you have any contacts in the music industry or any musical philanthropists who want to engage in a social impact venture around music and studio production, either as a supporter, donator or corporate sponsor - please contact jodie@projectyouth.org.au 

If you want to know any more about our music program or studio, contact Pat studioy@projectyouth.org.au

Meet Ruby:

I’m Ruby, the new Crisis Accommodation Coordinator. I have been with Project Youth since April 2019 as a Support Worker at Pennys Refuge. I am lucky to work alongside the Refuge teams to provide our crisis accommodation services via The Bridge and Pennys.

What I enjoyed most about working in a Refuge was the unique ability to spend time with a small number of young people building our relationships and trust to be able to support them through the ups and downs of their journey. Being able to cook dinner and share meals together, teach life skills and witness growth over a young person’s stay is what makes our job so rewarding.

Transitioning into the Coordinator position allows me to strengthen our program and increase our impact through a different lens. I am afforded the opportunity to be able to invest in the incredible refuge staff, strengthening their practice, growing their skillsets and supporting them to always strive for the best outcomes for our young people.

I will be sure to continue to share the great things this team, and our young people achieve. Stay tuned!

Meet *Mel:

Our Emotion Skills group has run this term. 

One young person who was referred to us from the Adolescent Interagency Meeting (AIM) for self harming behaviours has attended every session. Over the past 7 weeks she has come out of her shell, engaging in group discussions and forming connections with peers. 

We have provided a safe space for the girls to learn strategies based on Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). 

After the 2^nd session this young person said ‘"I really enjoyed the group and feel as if I can be more interactive next time because I am slowly gaining confidence amongst everyone and feel more comfortable". During discussion she has shared examples of how she has implemented strategies learnt in the program which has reduced incidents of self harm. She has communicated "thank you for having me, I feel like this can really benefit and help my mental health and relationships with others". This young person has also expressed how she feels heard and that the youth workers in the program really listen to her and care about what she says."

*Name changed