At Burdekin we love to encourage our young people to make good decisions about how they learn best and create opportunities for them to pursue their interests and practise skills.
The Youth Support Fund is a grants-based system where young people can apply for financial support based on their individual requirements.

Camps provide the opportunity for our young people to laugh and find joy in this world. The children and young people we work with have been exposed to a high degree of trauma in their short lives. They work hard to make the best choices in life and to step away from peer influences however this can be difficult to manage when their peers are often like family to them.

Whilst these experiences occur, our skilled staff can weave into the day discussions on goal setting, confidence, self-esteem, drug and alcohol use, financial planning and a myriad of other accidental counselling sessions on a variety of topics.

Driving a vehicle represents freedom, driving is a life skill and some jobs even require a driver's licence as a prerequisite for the position. Driving provides young people with a means to pursue their dreams.

In NSW young people need to complete 120 hours assisted driving with a responsible adult in addition to lessons with a professional instructor.

Paying for driving with somebody would be very expensive. Staff and volunteers have been donating their time and vehicles to help young people clock up the 120 driving hours. As we continue to grow this arrangement is becoming increasingly unsustainable.

This is why we would like to purchase and maintain a dedicated car estimated at $10,000 plus on-cost. This would make it easier to enable the young people to get the 120 hours together without relying on the generosity of our staff.

Many of the children and young people who come to Burdekin have experienced traumatic events such as physical and sexual assault, family violence, physical and emotional neglect. These young people need therapeutic care and a holistic response to overcome behavioural challenges.

Within the public system, young people need to deal with lengthy waiting times and within the private sector young people deal with prohibitive costs for therapeutic treatment.

In addition, even Non-Profit organisations offering counselling and therapeutic assistance have waiting times of up to six weeks because they are so busy. In acute circumstances this is not only inadequate but can be outright dangerous.

Accessing the best, immediately available private sessions allows us to cut down on waiting times and be responsive to critical needs when and where they are needed by our children and young people.

The Burdekin Association adopted an integrated approach to working with therapists who are skilled in trauma treatment and provide individualised treatment.

There are times at global, national, state and most importantly, at the local community level that affect young people and require an immediate response. These events include natural disasters, pandemics, terrorist threats, shootings, accidents and loss of life.

In 2020 a headspace survey found that 75% of young people reported their mental health deteriorated during the Covid-19 pandemic – this came on the back of devastating bush fires.

In 2018/2019 the Northern Beaches community shared the devastating experience of a number of youth suicides resulting in service providers coming together to provide emergency support for young people.

The Crisis Response Fund would give us the ability to provide a critical, immediate, and appropriate response to engage with young people during a time of acute and on-going crisis when there is no time to seek approval for or raise funds - and when the young people need it most.

When moving into a new property, many owners require holding bonds and/or security deposits - funds that young people don’t readily have access to, simply because they are young. They haven't had time to save up money nor a credit rating yet. They are at a time of their lives where they are studying, in an apprenticeship or a low paying job.

Supporting young people into independent living may mean providing assistance with:

• rent and utility bills,
• sourcing or buying furniture,
• white goods and/or other necessities and
• the physical aspect of moving from one property to another.

Our Housing Assistance enables young people to access part or all of the financial support required to develop full independence and stand their two feet, make their own decisions and know their own boundaries.

All of the support Burdekin provide is about equipping young people to become a fully functioning adults because we know success in adulthood is dependent on being able to navigate everyday life.

Why include capacity-building in the Youth Development Fund? Because we need to ensure our community, stakeholders and staff are operating in accordance with best practices and at their best levels.

To achieve this, we need to develop and strengthen their skills and abilities, we need to improve our processes so together, we can survive, adapt, and thrive in a fast-changing environment.

Capacity building activities may take the form of practical training, workshops, information evenings and community days.