OUTREACH services • Expand and develop relevant programs to assist our young
Connecting with Young People in the community
people to prepare and transition into independence and the community.
Youth Off The Streets’ Outreach Services provide a positive impact and flexible response to the needs of young people and their community. Our services invite young people to participate in a safe and supervised program in their own communities, providing low-key and positive diversionary activities that allow young people to interact, socialise and meet youth workers. Free BBQs and recreational activities are a feature of all Outreaches.
Ongoing Challenges
Our Outreach Services target young people aged between 12 and 21, but all ages are welcome to attend. We especially encourage families to attend and support our programs and the involvement of their child.
• Challenges
Youth Engagement Bankstown East Cessnock Cranebrook
Structure Programs Kurri Kurri
OR
1 on 1 Development Case Management
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Once trust and acceptance grows, the service builds up to more structured and specific activities that cater to the specific needs of young people in the community. Outreach Services has achieved great success in engaging disadvantaged and disengaged young people since its early beginnings in 2005. As a result, Outreach Services are now offered in Blacktown, Doonside and Cranebrook in Western Sydney; Kurri Kurri and East Cessnock in the Hunter Valley; and in Bankstown.
ces
the professional boundaries of Outreach youth workers whilst working within their own community. for Youth Off The Streets to quickly staff and resource new Outreach programs, particularly in response to community disturbances.
• Identify,
works. An audit of internal and external policies, procedures, templates and forms was conducted in an effort to streamline the way Outreach works. The goal is to have a systematic and integrated way of working by 2015. Established a ‘The Way We Work’ team to ensure that the project moved along and achieves the desired goals.
• All Outreach Services are now using online reporting methods
Youth Off The Streets Outreach Model
servi
• Managing
• An action orientated approach to improving the way Outreach
Stay in Community Doonside Blacktown
ach
a willingness to work evenings in our Outreach programs has been a challenging process.
What We Did
Response to Crisis
Centre for Youth Macquarie Fields
• Finding candidates with good qualifications, experience and
staff and implement 10 new Outreach locations according to the Federal Government National Crime Prevention Fund grant of $5 million over two years.
Move out of Community
outre
OUTREACH services
2012/13 Goals • Raise
awareness and educate about what Youth Off The Streets’ Outreach Services is, does and how we can help young people.
• Train staff in data collection methods, including ‘participant observation’, and introduce online reporting templates to track the impact of our services on young people and the community.
as a means of recording data and participation observations. Internal training, was delivered by the Youth Off The Streets’ Research and Evaluation Team on the methods of reporting data were conducted with each of the teams. Data that is regularly collected and reported is being used to steer the direction of each program, ensuring that the service continues to be relevant and responsive to the needs and trends of each community.
National Youth Week - Youth Off The Streets Outreach Services celebrated National Youth Week from the 5 to 14 April 2013, supporting the theme of ‘Be active Be happy Be you’. To celebrate the contribution of young people to their community, each Outreach Service hosted a number of free events that were promoted and marketed via Youth Off The Streets communication and as a unified Celebration of Youth. Some examples of activities are:
• Hunter Valley Outreach held an Open Mic Night as one of
their National Youth Week events, inviting young people to perform on stage and in front of an audience, supporting the growth of self-esteem and confidence of participants. On the night, 70 young people participated.
• Western Sydney Outreach was involved in two Youth Week
events, one of which saw the service organise an OzTag Tournament in partnership with the Penrith Panthers. In total, 12 teams entered the competition, engaging 200 young people in total on the day. This was the first time that Youth Off The Streets coordinated such a large sports tournament day. Through our experiences at our regular, twice weekly Outreaches held at Doonside, we determined that OzTag was the sport of choice for the community.
• Bankstown
Outreach participated in four different Youth Week events. One event that was coordinated by the staff at Bankstown Outreach was the African Youth Soccer Team, which engaged 60 young people on the day, with six teams entered into the competition.
Hunter Valley Skate Competition - Hunter Valley Outreach held a Skate competition at Margaret Johns Skate Park in Kurri Kurri on 17 November 2012. Many skaters, scooter and bike riders showed off their talent performing some gravity defying tricks. The young people who attended had a great day enjoying the free BBQ, circus activities, break dance performances and witnessing some professional scooter riders.
• The lifecycle of an Outreach Service has been determined and
formalised, identifying the various points for change or growth for an outreach program. The core business of the lifecycle is the Youth Engagement stage, which focuses on the creation of programs that engage youth at the most convenient time and in places where young people are connected to the whole community and their family. Youth Engagement is the hinge that all other programs and activities are connected to.
Highlights
National Crime Prevention Fund – Expanding our Outreach Services - In April 2013, Youth Off The Streets received $5 million over two years to establish 10 new Outreach Services for areas in need. This money will be spent expanding our services to communities that have high youth unemployment, low levels of schooling and are socio-economically disadvantaged. We need to identify the communities in need before they reach a crisis point. Establishing services and infrastructure in high need areas for young people to escape the cycle of disadvantage is imperative.
youth off the streets 2013
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