Youth
Young refugees face many challenges as they settle in their new country. Their efforts to set goals and determine future pathways may be frustrated by problems such as language and literacy difficulties and a lack of effective role models to help them navigate and understand the education and labour market systems. They also often need to manage family expectations and deal with cultural differences.
The Brotherhood works to keep young refugees and migrants in school, socially connected and developing their own peer groups.
Many of our youth programs for refugees are delivered through our Ecumenical Migration Centre and our Napier Street Child and Family Resource Centre.
The Refugee Youth Development Program (RYDP) gives young refugees the capacity to find their own pathways, develop as leaders and become involved with their communities. It does this through a range of learning activities that build confidence, skills and resilience.
Disadvantaged youth often miss the chance to develop leadership skills and can be isolated from the wider community. In 2008 the Community Service Leadership Program (CSLP) assisted around 30 young people to develop youth-led projects that benefit their community.
Doing homework in a crowded home and having no-one able to offer help makes it harder to get good results in class. With the Homework Centre, the Brotherhood provides a quiet environment where secondary students can study with assistance from volunteer and staff tutors.
Youth 2 Youth is a peer-education program designed to strengthen the leadership and communication capacity of newly-arrived youth from African backgrounds to engage with other youth and support them in achieving better settlement outcomes. It was developed from a need to support disengaged youth from African backgrounds so that they can make informed choices about their own settlement.