Stories of youthwork, from YAPA's monthly newsletter YAPRap
New this month
Kickstart
StreetWork Kickstart - an intensive support program for at risk youth in Sydney's north. 4/08
Making a difference in Walgett
3 successful youth projects in the Walgett, Collarenebri and Lightning Ridge communities 4/08
Ourspace? Yourspace? Myspace?
...we want to share some of our experiences and lessons learnt as we understand that many youth services and youth workers are a little bit “nervous” about venturing into myspace... 2/08
Community Links: Life Stuff and Standing Strong
Life Stuff and Standing Strong are partnerships Community Links Wollondilly and Picton High School. 2/08
Where can I be myself?
GLBT. What does this mean? Even if you say Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender it doesn't really explain what GLBT really means. 10/07
Other stories
Berridale needs a youth centre
With a lack of public transport and activities, the local young people of Berridale are working towards their own youth space.
Eurobodalla youth on the move
Young people in the Eurobodalla have safe transport home from local youth activities thanks to a grant of $16,000 from the NSW Ministry of Transport and the support of the Eurobodalla Transport Working Group.
Resilient Young Peoples Program (RYPP) in Nambucca
In response to the concerns expressed by local schools and the wider community, Nambucca Council formed a partnership with Reconnect to deliver a three-tiered, early intervention approach to providing community support to young people engaged in school. The Resilient Young Peoples Program (RYPP) is ongoing, and runs alternatively throughout the year in three schools in the Shire - Bowraville Central, Macksville High and Nambucca Heads High.
Batbus
Three youth transport services on the Far North Coast of NSW have received additional funding to provide transport for sporting groups consisting predominantly of young people between the ages of 12 -25. The transport services are Batbus, Yaxi and Yowi. The services identified that there was a need for groups of young people to get to sporting matches, particularly those further afield, such as regional tournaments. Lack of public transport had been frequently identified as one of the key concerns for young people in the area...
Blueprint for a green future!
Byron Youth Services with the Youth Activities Centre is introducing innovative environmental practices into their centre through an exciting new project being co-ordinated by the North East Waste Forum (NEWF)...
Business backs aerosol artists
Macquarie Road is fast becoming the most unexpected art gallery in the Blue Mountains on Wednesday nights thanks to a new program by Springwood Youth Project.
The council-funded initiative has seen young people turn lowly Otto bins into their canvases, creating art works for a growing number of Springwood businesses.
Cafes
- Channel café, Penrith
- Homebass, Bankstown
- Retro Youth Café, Albury
- Training at the Olive Branch Cafe, Newcastle
- Eurobodalla youth on the move - taxi voucher scheme for South Coast youth cafes
See also Regional Youth Support Services at Gosford
Culcairn postcard
When I joined the Culcairn Shire Youth Council I also became a member of the Culcairn/ Holbrook youth action team who are also known as a community drug action team. In the next four years, the youth council put on various events such as discos, movie nights and battle of the bands...
Deadly in the Druitt
The Mt Druitt Aboriginal Community Youth Justice Group meets every Tuesday at HAYS for any Aboriginal young people between the ages of 12 and 25...
From chaos to calm
Following a huge escalation in critical incidents the Drum Youth Resource Centre was closed. The environment in the Drum had become violent and unsafe and very hostile for many young people. We had constant critical incidents, community complaints, police not attending when called and generally a bad image in the community. As a team we embarked on a restructure process, and today the Drum is a safe, welcoming and well-used resource centre for young people in Macarthur...
Getting Along and Keeping Cool
... one of Bega Reconnect's early intervention programs tailored for young people aged 12 - 18. An anger management and behaviour modification program developed by the WA Centre for Clinical Intervention...
Lidcombe Children's Court Assistance Scheme
Stan and Vik are the first point of contact for young people at the Children's Court. Both have the rare skill of being able to make cold-contact with young people and establishing trust. They have made an art of utilising the court setting as an effective point of contact with high-risk young people. They are able to provide court support directly and through a team of volunteer youth workers whom they supervise...
Light, Stills, Emotion: photography project with young women
... a project with young women, using photography to explore various types of relationships...
McCully's Gap Youth Group
...one very inspiring Mum, Narelle Murray, decided to turn McCully's Gap Hall into a Friday night ‘youth night'!...
Making positive change in rural NSW
...at YAPA's 2006 Rural Youth Work Conference in Dubbo, over 100 participants got together to network, teach and learn about each other's services ...
Nowra youth gets a place to call home
Nowra's young people have never had a place designed specifically for their needs. For many years 'temporary' buildings were designed but they were never truly a place young people would chose to go to. But after many months, if not years, of lobbying and talking to anyone that would listen, progress began. In October 2002, Shoalhaven City Council's elected representatives decided that a vacant building in the Central Business District of Nowra would become the new Youth Centre...
Parenting Young Project
Parenting Young is a collaborative approach to working with young parents - a Working Party of committed service providers provide support, information and recreational services to young parents under 24 years of age through two groups.
Richmond Fellowship
Dual diagnosis in young people is a hot issue in NSW - young people who have a mental illness, along with a dependency on alcohol or other drugs, or multi-diagnosis. Many drug rehabilitation services can't work with young people who have a mental illness. On the other hand, many mental health services can't work with young people who are using alcohol or other drugs. Enter the Richmond Fellowship...
Rock and Water
The Rock and Water course offers youth workers and teachers a new way to interact with boys in relationship to their physical and social development. The program is also effective for girls. Physical exercises are constantly linked with mental and social skills. In this way the program leads from simple self-defence, boundary and communication exercises to a strong notion of self-confidence. The program offers a framework of exercises and thoughts about boys and manhood to assist boys to become aware of purpose and motivation in their life.
Rocks Fest
Rocks Fest 2005 was a film festival held in The Rocks, Sydney in 2005 and is set to rock again this year. This festival is organised and run by young people in the Millers Point area, predominantly supported by staff at the Abraham Mott Youth Centre and Lend Lease, along with many other local businesses and volunteers...
Regional Youth Support Services at Gosford
One of the very few youth service providers on the Central Coast over the last 2 decades, and the only specific, community-based youth service organisation, is Regional Youth Support Services (RYSS), leading the way in providing real and lasting alternatives to the youth of the Central Coast across social, cultural and employment fields.
Parkside at Gosford
Parkside is a multi-service youth service centre, initiated by Regional Youth Support Services (RYSS) and Employment Training (ET) Australia. At present, Parkside houses six independent youth service providers.
Shellharbour youth workers in high schools
Shellharbour Youth Services Team is paving the way for change and making young people's access to youth workers even easier with its innovative Youth Workers in High Schools Project, helping youth workers reach more young people and working in partnership with schools to deliver new and exciting alternative educational programs...
Shock horror! We've got a student & don't know what to do with them!
We advise you of a few tasks that aren't appropriate to give your students while on placement. Following on from that we produce a list of appropriate tasks that you could assign to your student...
Trust
Interview with Steve, a street worker in western Sydney, about:
- Trust: what he thought a youth worker might do to build up trust with young people.
- Trust blown: how a youth worker might destroy trust.
Unique program for newly arrived youth
A unique Red Cross program helping newly arrived young people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds...
What's the problem? What we learnt about youth service culture
Most of us in the "youth work business" are there because we want to make a difference in the lives of young people. Then what's the problem??? The "problem" is that young people are often not easy to work with! We found that the young people we wanted to help were often the ones who would drive us to the greatest frustration and make us question why we got into this business in the first place!! So, what do you do? Do you become another authority figure in their life desperately trying to make them behave or is there a solution, perhaps one that is more "preventative"?...
YOYOs
YOYOs is the youth centre run by Warringah Council. It's name is an acronym for "You're Only Young Once". It constantly attracts up to 350 young people to each of its band nights...
Young Parents Early Intervention Parenting Program (YPEIPP)
YPEIPP is a prevention and early intervention program assisting young parents and their children through a program of information, education and collaboration.
Youth helpz yoUth: Holroyd Peer Education Project
The Holroyd Youth Peer Education Project has been progressing well in creating avenues for young people to educate their peers on health issues affecting young people. This project is about identifying young people as peer educators and leaders with a focus on empowering them to help their peers around health issues that affect young people...
Stories of inclusive youthwork
Camp Queer
If you are a young person who is attracted to other people of the same sex, and you live in the city of Sydney, there are many organisations available to assist you with just about any issue you have. If you live further afield, in a rural area or the western suburbs of Sydney, it can be much more difficult to access services. When Emma Beh began her employment as the Rural Youth Suicide Prevention Officer for TraXside Youth Health Service (Campbelltown) and Macarthur Area Health she came face to face with this issue...
Deaf...? or should that be dislabelled young people?
Young people can grow in many ways. One of the best ways is for them to learn positive lessons from their peers. Wollongong Youth Services has taken this strategy to heart and set up a support group for deaf and hearing-impaired young people, run out of the generalist youth service - the only group of this kind in NSW...
GLBT: More than a club sandwich!
GLBT = Gay, Lesbian Bisexual & Transgender. Barriers to young people of diverse sexualities and access to generalist services has been an issue that organisations and groups across the Nepean region have recognised and worked on for some time...
Journey to the Heart
There has always been something mystical about Uluru. It has held a fascination for Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, for many generations. What better place to take young people on a journey of discovery and reconciliation? Groups from all over Australia, including Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Tasmania, and Sydney, are chosen to undertake a pilgrimage to Uluru to learn more about Aboriginal culture and its importance in their lives...
Linking new arrivals to community support (LiNCS)
The concept of a ‘service’ is often an unfamiliar one for young people from a refugee background. Many have arrived from war-torn countries where a welfare system does not exist. There is so much to learn about in a new country and finding the relevant information can be hard. LiNCS is one project that seizes this opportunity...
Peace, not pieces: Young refugees travel to Gunnedah for cultural exchange
The country town of Gunnedah partied to the sounds of Sierra Leone on drumming, during the soccer extravaganza, the 'International' Gunnedah Cup. Over 100 enthusiastic soccer players from diverse Australian backgrounds - including Somalia, Sudan and Sierra Leone - travelled from their home in Sydney to Gunnedah to participate in the soccer meet...
Young people with high advocacy needs
Interview with Steve, a street worker in western Sydney, about young people who have high advocacy needs.
