Michael Horn presents at The Brotherhood of St Laurence during Poverty Week
Michael Horn presented at The Brotherhood of St Laurence during Poverty Week 2013. Here are some of his observations…
Michael Horn presents at The Brotherhood of St Laurence during Poverty Week
24 October 2014Despite the best efforts of governments to date, we are still failing a significant proportion of young Australians:
- High levels of disengagement of teenagers from education or work
- 19% of young people experience social exclusion: 3.4% are deeply excluded (104,000)
- Early school leavers experience social exclusion at almost 3 times the rate of those who have completed Year 12
- 43% of people using homelessness services are aged under 25 years (Australia),
- 6,900 young people (16-24 years) use SHS services annually (Victoria)
One solution could be Foyers. What is Foyer? Here’s the background on the UK approach:
- Irish FoyerEmerged in the 1990’s as a response to increasing youth homelessness (concept from France)
- Supported by the Blair Government – led to major expansion from 5 initial pilots
- Provided safe, affordable accommodation integrated with learning, skills for independence, health and wellbeing, family mediation, volunteering
- Formal commitment underpinning relationship with young person – a ‘deal’
- Approx 135 UK foyers – range in size from 5 to 200 beds: 10,000 assisted each year
Foyer in Australia
- Foyer2The generic ‘foyer’ approach is not new to Australia
- First foyer developed in 2003 in Sydney (Miller Campus)
- Estimated 14 foyer-type services (8 in Victoria and 6 interstate)
- Nearly 300 capacity
- Ranging from 10 to 35 beds
- Typically small size – average of 20 beds
- Mixed accommodation model: congregate/dispersed or networked