Youth Connections Legacy - Regional Development Australia

RDA Wheatbelt Inc.
Youth Connections Program
Legacy Document
Index
Background
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Achievements
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Barriers
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Benefits to Young People
5
Reengagement Activities
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Individual Young People - Case Studies
9
Partnerships
10
Program Closure
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Legacy Report Objectives
The goals of this report are to:
1. Outline the achievements of the Youth Connections Program in the Wheatbelt.
2. Identify the barriers to delivery of the program.
3. Provide details of the benefits to young people at risk of not achieving year 12 or equivalent.
4. Acknowledge the impacts from closure of the program.
Youth Connections Staff
RDA Wheatbelt would like to sincerely thank the following people who
Have delivered Youth Connections program during the last five years:
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Denese Smythe
Michelle Blackhurst
Kaye McGlew
Sharyn Day
Lyn Kay
Ione Griffiths
Jim Sala
Shelley Lombardini
Audrey Parnell
Susy Padfield
Leah Greer
Support Staff
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Rebekah Burges
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Pippa Harris
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Elizabeth Brennan
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Background
The Youth Connections (YC) program is funded by
the Commonwealth of Australia as represented by
the Department of Education until 31st December
2014. The Australia Government, along with state
and territory governments worked to help more
young people gain Year 12 (or equivalent) level
education. Youth Connections providers offered a
one-on-one case management service to help young
people overcome barriers and engage with
education. Program providers also travelled to the
areas where young people meet and engaged with
them through targeted activities. Local organisations
were assisted to identify the challenges facing young
peoples’ educational engagement and the providers
then worked with them to find solutions
Regional Development Australia (RDA) Wheatbelt is
the provider of the program in the Wheatbelt region.
The contracts for Youth Connections were awarded
prior to the re-drawing of Education Districts in WA
and as such our service area aligns with the old Midlands and Narrogin Education Districts. This covers
most of the Wheatbelt region with the exception of
the coastal/Western communities and Southern
Cross and with the addition of Katanning and Boddington. Each year between 145-185 young people
were assisted to reconnect by providing flexible, individualised case management as well as creating opportunities for group learning activities.
The Wheatbelt is divided into five distinct, but
inter-connected subregions, each of which is
serviced by a regional centre, these are
 Avon, with the town of Northam as its
commercial centre
 Central Coast with Jurien Bay and Gingin as
commercial centres
 Central Midlands to the north, with Moora as its
commercial centre
 Central East, with Merredin as its commercial
centre
 Central South, with Narrogin as its commercial
centre
To ensure that young people were able to access
support regularly, RDA Wheatbelt engaged staff who
where based in each of these areas in a ‘work from
home’ model of employment.
Regular on-line and face to face staff meetings were
held during the year which enabled the Youth Connections staff the opportunity to provide updates of
hot topics/issues that were impacting on the young
people in the region and to propose ideas to improve delivery and outcomes for young at risk people in the Wheatbelt.
Achievements
 During the course of the program intensive support was provided to more than 600 at risk young
people in the Wheatbelt with many of these
young people achieving positive outcomes, such
as, increased self esteem.
 The development and publication of a Wheatbelt
Youth Strategic Plan which is a planning document prepared through extensive consultation
with Stakeholders.
 The development and production of the WYLD
Magazine, a bi-monthly youth magazine
showcasing the achievements of Wheatbelt
young people and providing an insight into some
of the problems facing young people and how to
overcome these, including where to find support
and assistance.
 The development and production of the Wheatbelt Youth Services Directory, which was distributed across the Wheatbelt.
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 Receiving the Innovative Outreach Award, at
the Youth Connections Future for Young
Australians Beyond 2014 National Conference,
for the Wheatbelt Heritage Rail Project.
 Plus numerous more localised achievements to
increase regional capacity and strengthen
service delivery for young people in the
Wheatbelt.
 Wheatbelt Mental Health Youth Submission
made to the WA Commissioner of Young
People and Children’s Services, Michelle Scott
to inform her Youth Mental Health initiatives.
Stakeholders and young people were consulted to collect their views.
Barriers
While most young people grow up in happy
healthy families, many are doing it tougher than
others. Family conflict and parental stress, abuse
or neglect, poverty, homelessness, mental health,
teenage pregnancy, and drug and alcohol misuse
increases their vulnerability and puts them at risk
of disengagement from education, community and
family. The Youth Connections program in the
Wheatbelt provided a holistic service to those
young people, assisting them to address their barriers to not achieving year 12 or equivalent.
The barriers facing at risk young people included:
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Behavioural problems
Socialisation issues
Current or previous Juvenile Justice Orders
Anger management issues
Suspected or diagnosed Mental Health issues
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Low literacy and/or numeracy
Low Self Esteem
Alcohol and/or drug misuse
Negative experience(s) with education and
training
Unstable living arrangements
Inadequate family support
Financial distress
Bullying
Critical life event
Barriers to providing service to at risk young
people in the Wheatbelt included:
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The travel required to provide face to face
support, at times up to seven hours travel time
per day to assist clients was required.
 The lack of any public transport for young people to attend training, employment, appointments etc across the Wheatbelt.
 The lack of free Centrelink connection for mobile phones, which is essential to youth at risk
in rural and remote areas. The costs of the 30
to 70 minute wait to connect with Centrelink
staff is prohibitive. There are minimal loca-
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tions in the region to connect with Centrelink
via a land line and there is no public transport
to access the Centrelink sites.
 The time taken to gain trust of the families and
young people to enable an ongoing relationship towards achieving their identified goals. In
the Wheatbelt there is a high turnover of service providers who support youth, so young
people start to build many relationships, often
feeling like they are then deserted as staff transition in their work. This also results in young
people losing valuable ground time to move
forward as relationships are built. The Youth
Connections program having a strong support
system for five years had been able to build
strong relationships with young people, families and communities.
 The lack of support and/or mentoring services
within each small community.
 In the Wheatbelt many communities still rely
on communication through the written word
such as local paper and flyers, rather than exploring social media platforms that young people use such as Facebook. When State and
Government Departments ask to locate further
information on their website it hinders many
young people who do not have computers and
do not wish to use their phone credit. A real
communication/literacy gap is evident.
 Many young people from ‘troubled’ families
inherit the family stigma which denies them
access to normal community support, as community and family values have changed.
 The world in which our severely at-risk young
people live is far removed from the world of
young people that have a support structure
around them. Consequently programs such as
Youth Connections are essential in building relationships and supporting young people.
Benefits to Young People
 The lack of other youth programs in the
Wheatbelt to refer young people, in particular
due to the closure of the Youth Connections
program many of the at risk young people will
not have access to any support services. In the
Northern Wheatbelt due to huge distances and
small populations, State and Federal service
providers are all being squeezed to achieve
higher outcomes/numbers on the same budget. This results in decisions needing to be made
to reduce travel time, further reducing frequency of service delivery to some regional or
more remote areas.
 Lack of alignment between the State and Federal departments supporting youth, with each
having their own targets to achieve, with limited resources.
There were many personal and social benefits
gained by the young people through the one-onone support of the Youth Connections Program.
Delivering the Youth Connections Program was
measured through a well-being index and a report
by RMIT University has found the program is
achieving one of its major aims – developing resilience and improving health and wellbeing for severely disadvantaged young people.
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Reengagement Activities
Reengagement Activities were used to attract at
risk young people to the program and eventually
into case management. Some of the activities
included but are not limited to:
Wheatbelt Heritage Rail Project
The Wheatbelt Rail Heritage project enabled
various stakeholders, six young people and their
families to engage productively in a community
based project leading to reengagement in learning
and successful transitions into the workforce.
Five of the six young people obtained employment
on completion of the project. One young person
reengaged in further learning through TAFE
enabling him to obtain an automotive apprenticeship.
These young people demonstrated to their peers
how all young people have the potential to
become effective learners and compete
successfully in the world of work. This project is of
particular significance in relation to the complex
challenge of engaging young people from small
scattered communities across vast distances in
meaningful learning and employment.
Specifically the Wheatbelt is an area approximately twice the size of Tasmania characterized by a
lack of public transport and employment and
training opportunities. RDA Wheatbelt was required to auspice the training program to overcome delivery barriers.
MISSYA Project
The Moora Interagency Services & Support for
Young Aboriginal Mums (MISSYA) project demographic for aboriginal parents/carers of children 0
to 4 years in the Moora region. Many of these
young mums were disengaged from further education. The key objective was to support aboriginal parents to engage in their child’s education.
The focus of the project was improving educational outcomes of young children through parental
engagement and developing school readiness
skills. This was achieved in part by engaging with
specialist presenters through a series of targeted
educational workshops that aimed to increase
health and wellbeing of infants and children,
encouraging parental engagement and supporting
young mothers in gaining knowledge of children’s
developmental needs.
The young mums involved in the program gained
an increased understanding of the importance of
activities to promote Language, literacy and numeracy development along with other school
readiness developmental considerations. The 123
Magic & Emotion Coaching sessions resulted in 10
participants achieving a certificate of completion.
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young people the opportunity to build a positive
relationship with the Police on neutral ground and
based on mutual respect.
The first game was held in Northam on 1st May
2012 and was well attended by both young people
and the police with the police winning the first
game. There were many games during the
program where young people from different
communities came together and were able to win
against the police. Games were played in Moora,
Kellerberrin, York and Northam on a fortnightly
basis.
The local Wheatbelt Police Superintendent spoke
about the success of the program and the opportunities that it provided for the young people in
the Wheatbelt and how it helped to develop a
positive relationship with the local police and the
young people.
This has had an empowering effect on participants, with them noticeably and quietly putting
these simple strategies into practice. The
Parenting Expo was a further opportunity to partner with Moora Early Years Network in bringing
local and regional service providers together and
for participants to have access to support services
to learn what they can offer.
This program has now finished its 3rd season with
young people requesting a 4th season. This
program has been transitioned to the Wheatbelt
Police who are keen to continue due to the many
benefits.
Following completion of the program the Community Health Nurse commented that mums who
came to see her and had been part of the MISSYA
program, were different, she said they appeared
happy and more in control.
Wheatbelt Basketball
RDA Wheatbelt collaborated with the Wheatbelt
District Police, Department of Communities and
Youth Justice and Avon Youth Services to organise
the ‘Wheatbelt Basketball Competition’.
The competition engaged young people between
13 and 17 years in a game of basketball competing
against members of the Wheatbelt Police. This
project focused on the issue of boredom and gave
Ging Mo
This intensive two week “skills for life” program
was held in two regional towns in the Wheatbelt
to attract and re-engage severely disengaged
young people.
The young people who attended all gained a
Certificate II in sports coaching through a Kung Fu
discipline delivered by the Ging Mo Academy.
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Young people gained 20 competencies including
first aid and workplace skills which could be easily
transferable to any career path; and also equated
to one and a half subjects towards their WA
Certificate of Education.
Camp Leschenaultia
This three day camp was organised to attract at
risk young people and engage them with cultural
activities and provide access to Indigenous role
models who embrace their culture and are willing
to pass on their knowledge.
The program was based on an honourable
relationship between student and teacher which
then allows the student to take ownership of the
knowledge shared in training. Students understanding that respect is the cornerstone of any
relationship, and whether people get along or not,
respect is still necessary; with the development of
a respectful relationship, comes the breakdown of
barriers to learning.
The program emphasised the self worth of each
participant and the power individuals have to
make positive choices, intervening during a time in
young people’s lives when they may feel a lack of
self control in their own lives either due to
negative choices made by friends, or control being
exerted by adults or authority figures.
Self-empowerment to equip the participants with
specific skills, create opportunities and encouraging them to use these skills to develop deeper
relationships with people in the community. The
ultimate goal being for each person to develop
skills to reflect and observe themselves. then
having the choice to interrupt patterns of
behaviour and the courage to follow through. A
very powerful and life-changing program focussing
on the whole person.
The camp included a full program of activities such
as a presentation to the boys by Gerald Ugle an
Indigenous, former AFL footballer. The girls
attending were provided with a workshop on
health and hygiene. Nyoongar Sports also took the
youth for a multi-skilled sports programme and
down to the lake for a swim. John and Oldham
Walley worked with the youth on their culture
using boomerangs, spears, walk through the bush
and talking about finding their own food and
water and showing them how to light a fire to eat
what they had caught.
All of the attendees came from a background of
alcohol and drug affected parents. This initiated an
in-depth discussion on the effects of alcohol and
drugs starting at a young age and then the cycle
continuing into families. This activity allowed for
closer relationship building through the one on
one contact with both Youth Support Officers and
the aboriginal role models that attended.
Bilya Budjar
The Youth Connections support officer in the Avon
sub Region developed this engagement program
to offer an alternative education pathway for severely disengaged young people.
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The activities were based around setting up a
community garden and learning the associated
skills with landscaping, gardening etc. Five severely disengaged young people have now reengaged
in education to obtain a language, literacy and
numeracy certificate.
Young male - Barriers: Abuse/domestic violence
issue, young carer responsibilities, disconnection
from cultural heritage, low literacy and/or
numeracy, low self esteem, unstable living arrangements, inadequate family support, financial
distress, critical life event.
Through their involvement in a range of activities,
the participants have improved their relationships
and are closing the generational gap between
themselves and the Elders in the community, the
interaction with their peers has also improved.
Initial Assessment (Pre Assistance):
The client was referred by the local Police as he,
his mother and siblings had come to live with his
grandparents. There had been an issue with
domestic violence from the father and the Police
believed that the family needed help in supporting
the client to stay on track and remain in school.
Individual Young People - Case studies
Young female – Barriers: Behavioural issues, low
self esteem, low literacy and numeracy, suspected
mental health issues.
Initial Assessment (Pre-Assistance):
This person had been encouraged to leave mainstream schooling in Year 9 due to behavioural issues.
During Enrolment:
This young person was referred to Youth Connection by the education department and with the
support and intervention of our Youth Support
Officer completed Year 12 and was awarded a certificate for student of the year.
Post Assistance:
This young lady is currently employed and has
improved self esteem and confidence skills.
Personal development was the key focus, including improved positive self esteem and communication skills both with peers and adults. Also work
on his resilience skills was provided by giving him
examples of techniques to use and practicing the
use of these. Socialisation skills were also developed by providing him with opportunities to mix
with other young people within the district.
During Enrolment:
The family found a house of their own a couple of
months after the client joined the Youth Connections program. Within a month of that, the client’s
father had returned home. Over the course of the
client’s enrolment, there did not appear to be any
issues of domestic violence (the father had received extensive counselling and support), and the
client was happy to have his father back in his life.
Dad expressed his pride in the client’s achievements, especially with his football.
The client took some time to settle into the larger
school environment of a Regional College, however with the support of Youth Connections (and his
sporting ability) remains well liked by both his
peers and teachers. He is currently a Student
Leader at the college, where he undertakes the
role with enthusiasm and responsibility.
Post Assistance:
The client has reengaged with his education, and
is undertaking year 11. He is focusing on a VET
pathway, but continues to strive for excellence in
his football and other sporting pursuits
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Partnerships
Partnerships and collaboration is strongly encouraged as it broadens the scope and exposure of the
program which can lead to sustainability of some
parts or all of the initiatives.
Careers & Training Opportunities Roadshow’s
The series of Career and Training Opportunities
Roadshow’s was a career development and
employment expo event which was facilitated
across the Wheatbelt region at various towns every year for the last three years. These successful
days were well attended by school students from
areas surrounding the town in which the event
was held. A variety of presenters from both the
government and private sectors offered career
information to students through stalls and career
presentations at the events.
Students were treated to speakers from areas
including Rural Health West, Construction Training
Fund, Motor Trades Association, Department of
Food and Agriculture, Directions Group Training
and CY O’Connor Institute. CBH group, other
agencies including Directions Workforce Development Centre Northam, and Curtin University also
provided information stalls on the day for the
young people to talk one to one.
These events were coordinated through our local
Partnership Broker Trevor Saunders from Sorcit in
collaboration with key agencies and industry
bodies. The events all received positive feedback
from the schools, students and industry representatives and are recognised as a valuable initiative
for getting students thinking about the possibilities when they leave school.
This type of activity is not available to rural towns
and by bringing the roadshow’s to these towns it
provides a service not otherwise available.
Many other successful partnerships where formed
during the course of the Youth Connections program, for example:
 The partnership between Max Employment,
KEEDAC and RDA Wheatbelt to deliver the
Bilya Budjar Program.
 The partnership between Shire of Dowerin,
Heritage Rail WA, WATCO, ANZ Bank with the
Wheatbelt Heritage Rail program
 Informal Partnerships between Shires, community and local young people to establish/
invigorate Youth Groups.
Program Closure
Funding for the Youth Connections program
ceases on 31st December 2014 and the Australian
Government is not offering any replacement
service for young people that are at risk and in
particular those that are disengaged from
education.
Youth Connections across the Wheatbelt was delivered by RDA Wheatbelt staff since 2010, who
offered a flexible individualised service to help
young people with barriers to make a successful
transition through education into further
education or employment.
Currently in WA there are almost 1,500 young
people on provider’s case lists who will not be receiving support after December 2014.
The potential impact for young people in our communities is of real concern as in the Wheatbelt,
Youth Connections was the only specialist provider of ‘one on one’ flexible youth case management
and so the loss of this program has a broad impact
on the community.
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In addition to individual support the program included the delivery of alternative education programs for severely disengaged young people, such
as the Award winning “Wheatbelt Heritage Rail
Project” in conjunction with the Shire of Dowerin.
Working with disengaged youth and severely at
risk young people requires a very different skill set
to many other professions. You need to have the
passion to support and work with young people,
together with being perceptive/intuitive as well as
requiring the knowledge to support connecting
with agencies in an ever changing agency world.
Building respectful relationships is an essential element to enable the young person to move forward.
The loss of this program will not only impact
young people but the wider youth services sector
and communities. For instance due to the lack of
public transport across the Wheatbelt and the
issue of ‘centralised’ support offices, how will the
youth at risk who have mental health issues and
or/family problems be able to get the help they
need?
The Youth Advisory Council of WA (YACWA) has
expressed real concerns about the closure of
Youth Connections, stressing that it is a successful
and cost effective program. The average cost of
providing Youth Connections services to a young
person is approximately $2,500 excluding GST,
with the highest cost being for severely
disengaged young people at approximately
$4,000.
As stated by YACWA in regards to the conclusion
of Youth Connections:
“If we are serious about young people earning or
learning we must provide sufficient resources to
ensure vulnerable young Australians have the best
possible opportunity to reengage or effectively
transition to education, training or employment.”
Youth Connections providers assisted in building
community capacity at local, state and national
levels.
Providers contributed to strategic development,
identifying local strengths and gaps and developing programs and support networks. As the Youth
Connections provider in the Wheatbelt area RDA
Wheatbelt has contributed to the development of
the Wheatbelt Youth Strategic Plan; has been instrumental in setting up the Narrogin Interagency
Group Local Agency Agreement, is an active member of the Northam Local Drug Action Group, and
continues to advocate for youth across the Wheatbelt.
Federal MP for Adelaide, Kate Ellis said.
"Cutting these programs wouldn't be a saving at
all - we all pay a very heavy price when young people slip through the cracks… It will cost us a lot
more in unemployment benefits, crime and social
services”
When you look at annual costs of $20,000 for a
young person to be on Youth Allowance, it makes
logical economic sense to provide the support.
In closing RDA Wheatbelt believe that the Youth
Connections program has made a significant
difference to young people and families which has
lead to social benefits in the Wheatbelt region.
The closure will leave a considerable gap and RDA
Wheatbelt would recommend a simular program
be created.
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This publication was produced by Regional
Development Australia Wheatbelt Inc. in support
of the Youth Connections program.
Denese Smythe
A/Executive Officer
Tel: (08) 9641 1325 / 0428 372 179
Email: denese.smythe@rdawheatbelt.com.au
Administration Office
3 Constable Street
Gingin WA 6503
Tel: (08) 9575 1888
Email: admin@rdawheatbelt.com.au
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