youth homelessness Archives - Page 3 of 13

We’ve been awarded a FutureSteps Grant!

November 1, 2023October 11, 2023

Stanmore House, a property to be renovated using the FutureSteps grant program.

The Burdekin Association is excited to reveal that we are the recipient of a FutureSteps Grant of $89,000 to be spent on renovating one of the houses we manage for young people transitioning from out of home care to semi-independent living in Sydney. The grant will help three additional young people transition into semi-independent living through the better use of space in the property.

What is FutureSteps?

FutureSteps is a Lendlease Social Impact Fund that’s grounded in the belief that everyone needs to call a place home. Lendlease partners with The Burdekin Association to achieve long term impact through increasing the availability of safe and appropriate housing, the number of pathways to education and employment, and participation in the community.

The FutureSteps Social Impact Fund focuses on addressing homelessness and increasing housing supply for those at risk of or experiencing homelessness. The grants typically awarded range in amounts between $20,000 and $100,000 and one of their target groups includes young people.

It all came about on Community Day – a day when Lendlease volunteers spend their time and skills to make a difference in the communities where they live and work. Thirty volunteers spent a day at our property doing painting, gardening, picture hanging, furniture building and much more in Stanmore. Katherine Bushell from Lendlease suggested that we apply for the FutureSteps grant. It took us one month to put it all together.
Claire Oxlade, Property and Asset Lead at The Burdekin Association

“Our tradie, Kevin, looked at our plans to reconfigure the layout of the space at the property to accommodate three more young people. He suggested that it would work,” continued Claire.

During the grant application process, we submitted the property’s plans, renovation costings, and explained how we would reconfigure the layout of the property to create the extra space for an additional three young people in our care. For Lendlease to give us the entire grant – $89,000 – is amazing! We will be able to use the space more sensibly.
Claire Oxlade, Property and Asset Lead at The Burdekin Association

A self-contained two-bedroom unit can now be created at the front of the property. This reconfiguration will help to provide wraparound care for the young person living there – as they will remain close to staff and the other young people living in the remainder of the house, but also have space to themselves. It will potentially be perfect for a young single parent, who may need support, but also privacy and quiet.

The reconfiguration will also involve the renovation of the current staff office space and combined kitchen into a studio staff office / bedroom / kitchenette.

Claire Oxlade in the area to be renovated

Claire Oxlade stands where a new bedroom could be positioned

“The staff at the property use the office a great deal, and renovating the current space to allow them to work and then be able to sleep overnight in a comfortable area will make such a difference,” Claire continued.

A staff bedroom upstairs at the property will then be released, to be used by an additional young person.

The project has enthused local architect and sessional academic, Jamileh Jahangiri of Orsi Architecture Studio, who met with Burdekin staff members during a recent networking event. She has offered to provide her architectural knowledge free of charge and will project manage the renovation of the property. Jamileh will provide concept designs, design briefs and a schedule of proposed materials and finishes and furniture layouts. She is keen to see how the young residents can be involved in the renovation process – choosing paint colours, designing the layout of the rooms, and learning a bit of design along the way.

If there are funds remaining once these renovations are complete, we hope to remove the kitchen cabinets, making the main kitchen more open plan, allowing for ‘Master Chef’ style cooking workshops to be held for the young people.

It’s so exciting. We wouldn’t normally be able to do anything like this. If we can make it more homely, well that’s my mission accomplished
Claire Oxlade, Property and Asset Lead at The Burdekin Association

What next?

The Burdekin Association is always looking for suppliers of white goods – fridges, washing machines, dryers, microwaves, air fryers and blenders, along with coffee tables, BBQs, outdoor furniture and kitchen utensils – to help our young people live comfortably in such a home. To donate a white good or to help our young people, please click here.

Foster Care and Kinship Week 2023

September 12, 2023

“More than 100 vulnerable children and young people are living in alternative emergency housing, such as hotels and motels, as the child protection system faces a dire shortage of Foster Carers,” reported Amber Schultz in The Sun Herald on September 10, 2023, the start of Foster Care and Kinship Week.

According to the report in the Herald, “There are around 15,000 children and young people in the NSW child protection system. The shortage of Foster Carers has resulted in an increasing number of children being housed in residential care.”

The Department of Communities and Justice estimates that an extra 600 Foster Carers are needed a year to take care of children who cannot live safely at home.

NSW Minister for Families and Communities, Kate Washington has used Foster Care and Kinship Week to make an urgent plea for more parents to sign up as Foster Carers.

“Each year, 600 new Foster Carers are needed in NSW to take care of children who can’t live safely at home. Carers can be family members or foster carers, and come from a diverse range of backgrounds and all walks of life.

All carers receive training, support and an allowance to help them throughout their care journey.”
Kate Washington, NSW Minister for Families and Communities.

Learn about becoming a Foster Carer here

The Burdekin Association hosted a stall at the Addison Road Community Markets in Marrickville on Sunday September 10, 2023 to discuss volunteering and foster caring opportunities at The Burdekin Association.

“The Burdekin Association loves to be a part of the local community. We want to partner with people who would like to understand the work that The Burdekin Association does with young people aged between 9 and 24. We believe that people in the community generally wish to help young people who haven’t had the best start in life – to have an opportunity to develop their skills and their confidence. The Burdekin Association provides that opportunity for the right people,” said Jill Wrathal Strategic Projects / Volunteer Manager with The Burdekin Association.

“Being Foster Care and Kinship Week, The Burdekin Association is looking for Foster Carers who have the right attributes, who love teenagers, and who are also very patient.”
Jill Wrathall, Strategic Projects / Volunteer Manager with The Burdekin Association.

The Burdekin Association provides free accommodation to Foster Carers. We rent houses all around Sydney in locations that are mutually agreed. As a Foster Carer, once you have received the training and been assessed as suitable, we are able to match you with a young person and provide a house for you in a location that meets both the needs of the young person and of you and your family situation.

“Foster Carers provide the ideal environment for a young person to thrive in. Foster Carers can be people at all different stages of life – we can have people in their 20’s, people in their 70’s. What they provide is a stable, consistent, loving home environment for a young person who has experienced not so many good things in their life. Often there has been trauma, abuse, neglect and these young people need to be given a stable, consistent home environment where they have their own bedroom, feel safe, and where the Foster Carer provides a consistent framework of support for them and they can engage with education and work opportunities as any child growing up in a family would want to do.”
Jill Wrathall, Strategic Projects / Volunteer Manager with The Burdekin Association.

Foster caring isn’t easy, but for the right people, it can be so rewarding to make a difference in the life of a young person. That’s why The Burdekin Association has its volunteering program. It’s a gentle entry point, with some volunteers going on to become Foster Carers.

Some ways that people in the community can volunteer as mentors to young people, is by helping them with:

Their education
Obtaining a driver’s licence
Learner driving supervision
Learning to cook
Learning to catch public transport
Developing their skills and their confidence

Take the quiz to see if you can become a Foster Carer

Professor Brian Burdekin on ABC Radio National

September 4, 2023September 4, 2023

Click here to listen to the radio interview.

The Burdekin Association’s Patron and Australia’s first Federal Human Rights Commissioner, Professor Brian Burdekin AO spent over 30 years advocating for the needs of children – those with disabilities and mental illness.

He led two landmark reports: ‘National Inquiry into Youth Homelessness’ in 1989 and ‘Human Rights and Mental Illness’ in 1993.

And, he delivered the opening address at the recent National Youth Homelessness Conference held in July 2023 in Melbourne.

He recently spoke with Andy Park, Presenter of the Drawing Room on Radio National about youth homelessness.

Key highlights of the radio interview:

More than 40,000 young Australians spend each night without a home, and 18,000 of these are under the age of 12 (according to the most recent official Australian Census estimates).
Professor Burdekin’s mother’s career had a dramatic influence on him and his ambitions for advocating for children with disabilities. He witnessed first-hand her experience of raising five children, attending university and being a teacher of students with disabilities.
He realised that as one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Australia still (in the mid 1980’s) had systemic discrimination against the hundreds of thousands of children who lived with disabilities and also people with mental illnesses.
He was named as Australia’s first Federal Human Rights Commissioner in 1986 and described Australians’ knowledge of human rights in Australia at the time as “being appalling”. He advised that 95 per cent of Australians at the time didn’t know what human rights were about, as the government had done “nothing about informing the general public that international treaties had been signed and were binding in international law in relation to the conventions on elimination of discrimination against women and the elimination of racial discrimination.”
He deplored the fact that Australia was the only country of 65 common law countries that did not have a Bill of Rights in their Constitution or federal legislation.

“My advice to the Federal Government (to ensure that children and young people aren’t overlooked) is to have a national housing plan, to put more money into social housing, and to develop a specific holistic plan for homeless children and young people, as their pathways into homelessness are often different. The holistic plan should include life skills training, opportunities for education and housing.”
Professor Burdekin AO, Patron of The Burdekin Association

Further key highlights of the radio interview:

He went on to advise that The Burdekin Association is looking after a rapidly increasing number of homeless children – children that don’t have any adult to care for them or to protect them.
Australia has almost the lowest rate of social housing in the world – only 3.9 per cent of available housing stock.
He stated that 122,000 Australians are currently homeless, of which 18,000 people are under the age of 12, and that early intervention and prevention – assisting families that are in trouble, that are stressed out, that can’t make ends meet – is more cost effective as well as more appropriate for protecting human rights.
Following the ‘National Inquiry into Youth Homelessness’, Professor Burdekin bought an apartment block of eight units in Forster Tuncurry, on the NSW North Coast, and worked with the Mayor of Taree and the St Vincent De Paul Society, to look after and house homeless young people and children. During the time, he learnt the necessity of keeping young people in their local area, that private businesses are often willing to help financially, and the importance of keeping children in touch with their community.
He emphasized that 84 per cent of children currently being assisted by The Burdekin Association have mental health problems and many homeless children have undiagnosed mental health problems.

On the move!

August 23, 2023August 23, 2023

We’re excited to report that The Burdekin Association has officially moved its Inner West team into our new premises in Marrickville!

The new spaces bring opportunities for children, young people and our team of staff to connect, create (especially in the industrial kitchen) and feel at home.

We can choose from four different rooms to: host visitors or clients, undertake training and inductions, hold smaller confidential meetings or have an informal chat. Multiple lounge areas are now also available for sharing lunch with team members, holding discussions, chilling out or cooking up a storm in the adjacent kitchen!

The furniture was generously facilitated by The Property Industry Foundation, an organisation that brings together the property and construction industry to positively impact youth homelessness.

The furniture was generously facilitated by The Property Industry Foundation, an organisation that brings together the property and construction industry to positively impact youth homelessness.

Most of the furniture was kindly donated from Charter Hall, one of the members of the Property Industry Foundation. Charter Hall is one of Australia’s leading fully integrated property investment and funds management groups, and the largest CBD office manager in Australia. We are very grateful to them for managing the movement of some our office furniture! No easy task!

“It’s brilliant when opportunities like this come together. Charter Hall is always incredibly generous and when the Burdekin Team came to us asking for support for their new office fit out, The 1 Shelley Street Charter Hall Team jumped at the opportunity to make a positive impact. They went above and beyond sharing over $20,000 worth of second-hand furniture which they had in storage. It was a beautiful example of a win-win scenario from both a sustainability and social good perspective. Thank you to all partners and individuals involved.”
Penny Kaleta, NSW State Manager, Property Industry Foundation

Among the furniture donated to our new office premises are a three-seater leather lounge suite, arm chairs, casual office chairs, three coffee tables, leather ottomans, cushions, a rug, dining table and chairs and bar chairs for the industrial kitchen. The donated furniture is estimated to be valued at over $20,000, and by being re-purposed, diverts much waste from being sent to landfill. We can’t begin to estimate how many tonnes of furniture was donated, but to give you an idea, there was a quantity large enough to be moved to one space ready for collection!

The remainder of the furniture – printers, IT equipment and office furniture – was relocated by Egans Removals and Relocations. Alongside our office relocation, they loaned us reusable packing crates, a great sustainable option to reduce our waste.

Our new office premises in Marrickville looks amazing with our fantastic re-purposed furniture and dedicated meeting spaces. The Burdekin Association is so proud and grateful to have such great partnerships with The Property Industry Foundation, Charter Hall and Evans Removals and Relocations to help make our new space so comfortable and home-like.
Justene Gordon, Chief Executive Officer of The Burdekin Association

Other furniture that was moved from our St Peters office to our new premises had previously been provided by Mates on the Move. At that time, Mates on the Move had disassembled our re-purposed conference desks and office chairs, moved them and then re-assembled them for us.

In case you didn’t know, Mates on the Move provides education, skills and employment training for people who have left prison, giving them a second chance to thrive at life. Mates on the Move is the social enterprise of the registered charity, Prisoners Aid Association of NSW.

Take a peek at Burdekin staff enjoying our new office premises and our wonderful re-purposed furniture below. Why not come and check it out for yourself? We’re at 99 Chapel Street, Marrickville.

What to do? Homelessness Conference offers solutions

August 23, 2023August 3, 2023

Did you know? The number of young Australians identified as homeless increased by 2,500 to 46,000 between 2016 and 2021 (Australian Census data).

This was a key finding of the National Children and Youth Homelessness Conference that was held late last month in Melbourne.

The conference brought together key people to raise awareness of the fact that the incidence of children and young people needing and seeking help from homelessness services has not reduced significantly since the Rudd government in 2008 committed to halving homelessness by 2020.

The conference aimed to mobilise a collective commitment to develop a joint government-NGO strategy to address child and youth homelessness nationally.

Other key findings released during the Conference (and featured in the ‘It’s Time’ report by the Youth Development Agency, included:

Two out of five people considered to be homeless were children or young people under 24 years of age.
Around 17,646 homeless people were aged under 12.
Approximately 36 per cent of the young homeless people identified as First Nations people.

The report also advised that to address the causes of homelessness and reduce the impact of homelessness, services and systems need to be transformed from (mostly) crisis intervention services to prevention and early intervention approaches – a solution that would neither be simple nor quick, but more effective.

The report states: “Many young people experiencing homelessness find moving into a fully independent living situation to be difficult because they are passing through a major developmental stage in life. Homelessness has a major impact on the successful completion of secondary school, participation in post-secondary education or training, and gaining secure employment.”

“In addition to stable housing, young people need to be supported into and through education and/or employment. Linking housing with education and training supports and into employment is the best way to ensure a transition to independence and to avoid future homelessness.”

Professor Brian Burdekin AO, Patron of The Burdekin Association gave the key note address at the conference and recently wrote an Opinion Editorial article for John Menadue’s Public Policy Journal, ‘Pearls and Irritations’.

“Federal, state and local governments need to work together with community organisations to develop a specific plan to address child and youth homelessness — to prevent them continuing to experience homelessness into their adult years. Their pathways into homelessness, their vulnerability and the assistance they need, are frequently very different to adults.”
Professor Brian Burdekin AO, Patron of the Burdekin Association

“Some of the rapidly growing number of homeless children we are now looking after at the Burdekin Association in Sydney are as young as seven years old. The problems confronting these children and young people include family poverty and isolation; the scarcity of low-cost housing alternatives; failure to provide any follow-up support for children who have been wards of the state; the inadequacy or complete absence of mental health facilities in rural and regional areas (where our youth suicide rate is double that of our major cities); and failure to implement programs for family support and early intervention strategies which could assist children at risk of becoming homeless,” Professor Brian Burdekin continued.

Read Professor Brian Burdekin’s speech at the National Children & Youth Homelessness Conference here.

For help:

In an emergency, call 000

Lifeline: 13 11 14
Kids Help Line (5–25 years): 1800 55 1800
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
Beyond Blue: 1800 512 348
MensLine Australia: 1300 789 978
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