Stories of youthwork, from YAPA's bimonthly newsletter yaprap.
Page contents:
- New stories
- Youth centres, cafes, music programs, festivals & public space initiatives
- Groupwork, counselling, housing, education, job programs & support
- Inclusive youthwork: reaching particular groups
- Other stories
New stories
Youth centres, cafes, music programs, festivals & public space initiatives
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... June 2006
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... February 2007
Blue Mountains Street Art Collaborative
...Through the development of legal avenues for aerosol art BMSAC helps to validate the place of young people in our community, foster a healthy creative outlet for youth and build positive relationships between young people and the greater community... April 2011
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)... November 2005
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... August 2006
Community buses
Here is a snapshot of a few community bus schemes around NSW... March 2009
Community cafe puts hope on the menu
A new cafe won't just feed people, it will also help them... For weeks, Mary Malak has been jittery with excitement. After almost a year of hard work, the energetic youth worker from Bankstown last week opened Peppertree Cafe, a social enterprise run by disadvantaged youngsters... smh.com.au 21/10/10 read full story - read Community cafes reach out to those whose cup has not runneth over - Bankstown Multicultural Youth Service
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
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...
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...
Making a difference in Walgett
3 successful youth projects in the Walgett, Collarenebri and Lightning Ridge communities April 2008
McCully's Gap Youth Group
...one very inspiring Mum, Narelle Murray, decided to turn McCully's Gap Hall into a Friday night ‘youth night'!...
Northern Composure Band Competition
The annual Northern Composure band competition has become something of an institution to young people living on Sydney’s northern beaches. The aim is to showcase local young bands and to give them valuable exposure as well as experience in playing to a live crowd, as well as giving local youth a place to see live music in a safe environment. The competition also hopes to encourage the development of young people's musical careers... July 2011
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...
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...
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...
Public & private spaces – safe places for all
Two councils in Sydney - Waverley and Hornsby - have used research and their creativity to successfully develop projects that aim to make all people feel welcome in public spaces. Both projects promote inclusion and safety in different ways, with young people being the focus...
6 Steps to an Eco-friendly Youth Centre
By becoming an Eco-friendly Youth Centre, your organisation can lead the way in adopting sustainable practices and showcase to young people and the community the way of the future. The 6 Steps to an Eco-friendly Youth Centre toolkit has been developed to assist organisations working with young people to integrate waste reduction, energy and water conservation practices into their work practices and programs for young people... January 2010
Street Beat
Greater Taree City Council offers a variety of programs to young people in the Manning Valley including the Street Beat Aboriginal Community Patrol... February 2009
Young people break thru
The hall is packed with 60 sweaty b-boys performing windmills, head spins and various other dance moves, the stereo pumps out classic funk tracks, as passers-by stare in amazement at the scene before them... September 2011
Youth service and shopping centre partnerships
Guildford and Wentworthville youth services, managed by Holroyd Council in Sydney's western suburbs, have formed a strong community business partnership with their local shopping centre Stockland Merrylands. Here's their experience...
Youth crime prevention in the Blue Mountains
We frequently hear calls to get tougher on ‘juvenile offenders’ and to do something about the ‘youth crime problem’. Deciding how to respond can be difficult...
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...
Groupwork, counselling, housing, education, job programs & support
BackTrack
...BackTrack, a youth program based in Armidale, northern NSW, comprises a set of philosophies that seek to improve the wellbeing of young people, especially young people who are having a hard time... April 2011
Bump
Bump is an innovative mentoring program for pregnant girls and young mums... November 2011
Community in the Kitchen
Community in the Kitchen is a YWCA project to implement a diverse program of social, educational and employment opportunities for youth at risk of offending or re-offending... July 2009
Deportment gives Indigenous girls job hope
It's hard work finding a job if you're a young person in regional Australia. It's even harder if you're young and Indigenous, but there is help at hand. In south-west NSW, one group of Aboriginal girls are going all out in their quest for job skills. That includes being taught grooming and deportment by a former model and the results are deadly… February 2011
Drink Safe
The Drink Safe Community Initiative was a two-year project with the aim of reducing youth binge drinking in the local government area of Broken Hill... July 2011
DRUMBEAT
The DRUMBEAT Program (Discovering Relationships Using Music -Beliefs, Emotions, Attitudes, & Thoughts) utilizes hand drumming to engage participants and explore commonalities between making music together as a group and developing healthy relationships... May 2009
Get real @ relationships
...Get REAL @ Relationships is a violence prevention program that was piloted in the central west region of NSW. You may be reading this thinking: not another relationship program! Yes, there are a lot of programs out there for young people. However, this one may just be worth learning a lot more about. For starters it used techniques such as image theatre to work with young people... June 2010
Lawson Youth Centre becomes high school
Should a teenager who struggles with school be allowed to have shorter school days, be exempt from exams, and set his own rules? Should a teenager whose family life is complex, fraught with disadvantage and hardship be expected to meet the same educational demands as her peers without these concerns? At the Lawson campus of the Blacktown Youth College, these questions are being tested, and students at risk of dropping out of school are achieving results they never thought possible. This article showcases the newly established Lawson campus of Blacktown Youth College, based at Lawson Youth Centre... July 2009
Lessons on past put bright future in focus
...when 14-year-old Marlee Tyson signed up to learn more about her Aboriginal heritage, she might have expected to feel a little left out... smh.com.au 14/5/10
Macarthur Young Driver Assistance Program
... The project will engage the services of Professional Driving Instructors to provide driving lessons to MYDAP clients, up to the minimum requirement to sit for the driving test to obtain a P1 (Red P) Provisional Licence... April 2011
M'ville on my mind
I listened to the CD M’ville on my mind, a compilation of music by local young people. The music is really powerful. It is full of young people’s thoughts and stories. I really did have Marrickville on my mind by the time I got to MYRC and I was glad that I was paying a visit to where all this amazing music was recorded... April 2010
Risky business
Erick Elefante has worked with African and Muslim young people for 8 years in his various roles at the Granville Multicultural Community Centre (GMCC). This year the centre won a ZEST award for the project Risky Business that Erick managed. I was curious to find out not only about Risky Business but also about Erick and his commitment to youth work... September 2011
Slippry Sirkus
...Integrating visual arts, dance, theatre, circus, film, music, art of celebration, digital media & technology to engage with communities and produce notable experiences that affirm the valuable role of art to affect social, health, educational and environmental outcomes... April 2011
The Noffs family & The Street University
The story of Ted Noffs, a maverick Methodist minister, whose groundbreaking work with the young and destitute in 1960s Australia lives on through his son and grandsons. But with one major difference - the Christian message is no longer part of the mission... Ted Noffs founded The Wayside Chapel in 1964 in the heart of Sydney’s red light district of Kings Cross establishing, for first time, drug referral and rehabilitation centres as well as helping the city’s poor and needy. Over time he developed the “Family of Humanity” a belief that encompassed every faith, and put him on a collision course with his own church. In the decades since Ted’s untimely death his oldest son, Wesley, and now his grandsons, Rupert and Matt, have all given up successful careers to run the ‘family business’, the Ted Noffs Foundation, forging new ways of reaching out to today’s youth… abc.net.au 14/11/10 read transcript or watch video
The Rite Journey: Why rites of passage matter in a modern age
...Young people in today’s modern culture often find themselves in a society in which there is sometimes little place for purposeful connection, guidance and ceremony. One of the points of life in which this lack is seen most clearly is the transition from childhood to adulthood. Today’s young people need their parents and caregivers to find the time and opportunities in which to connect, guide and provide ceremony and celebration... April 2011
WASP
Wingecarribee Adolescent Survival Program (WASP) was a closed group work program for young people aged between 14 and 18 years who were at risk of leaving school early or had already left school. WASP aimed to give young people an experience of difference and an opportunity to succeed... November 2009
Young parents project wins national award
...When Youth Health Worker Nikki Rabbitte met photographer and filmmaker Rewa Nolan they realised a shared vision for increasing the rural community awareness of the challenges that young parents face in their lives... February 2011
Young Women's Mentoring Program
The Women’s Cottage decided that they wanted to create a program that would bring young women into contact with the Cottage, as young women were not accessing the services provided there... July 2008
Youth artist in residence
...a strategic partnership between Wollongong Youth Services, Cultural Services and Wollongong City Gallery to develop the youth artist in residence program. The aim is to provide young emerging artists between the ages of 18-24 years who live in Wollongong the opportunity to be mentored... October 2010
Youth Empowerment through Sport
...For many young male refugees, sport is a major vehicle for bridging cultural differences. However, for many young refugee women, the barriers to accessing sport can deny them this opportunity... February 2011
Youth health - peer education in action
Peer education has become a renowned model of working with people of all ages, communities and backgrounds to create social change and build sustainable outcomes in individual behaviour and communities... September 2009
Youth homelessness
If you're young and homeless, you're more likely to become a homeless adult so it makes sense to focus on prevention. Mission Australia is trying a new approach to youth homelessness in Sydney's south-west, offering a greater variety of housing options and education and family support… ABC radio Life Matters 21/2/11 – listen: www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2011/3143597.htm
Home is where the hard work is for young builders
Over the past six months Mathew Joinson and Antonio Lolesio have received paid, on-the-job training as a part of the Affordable Housing for Life project, which helps ''at-risk'' youths gain valuable employment skills as they build a house in which they are then able to live… smh.com.au 22/12/10 read full story
Young people living with mental illness in the criminal justice system
A pilot project aims to help young people living with mental illness in the criminal justice system February 2011
Community Links: Life Stuff and Standing Strong
Life Stuff and Standing Strong are partnerships Community Links Wollondilly and Picton High School. 2/08
Kickstart
StreetWork Kickstart - an intensive support program for at risk youth in Sydney's north. 4/08
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
Young people with high advocacy needs
Interview with Steve, a street worker in western Sydney, about young people who have high advocacy needs...
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...
Inclusive youthwork: reaching particular groups
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...
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...
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...
Other stories
Council youth services
Many people see their local council as an unapproachable organisation steeped in red tape and bureaucratic nonsense. While for some councils this may be true, all are run for the benefit of the community; most do it well and even fewer see community development down the list well after roads, infrastructure and water restrictions. Gosford City Council lies 40 minutes north of Sydney and makes up most of the 'Central Coast'. Sitting amongst 6 directorates and over 50 service units, lies Youth Services... January 2010
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...
Droughts, flooding rains… and kilometres: Rural youthwork challenges
YAPA met with a series of local services to chat about the challenges of service provision in a rural context. These included Centacare, a multicultural service for new arrivals and refugees in Wagga, and Tirkandi Indaburra, a remote residential service and education facility for young indigenous men... July 2011
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 ... 2006
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... February 2008
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...
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.
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"?...