Barnardos Australia

Project: Yalmambirra Learning Centre

The Yalmambirra Learning Centre is a multi-faceted and holistic program that aims to reconnect 5-18 year olds who are at risk of disengaging with their family, community, education, training and employment and who are at risk of suspension and or dismissal from school. The project encompasses two crucial aspects of child welfare work; it will provide intervention in the short term and prevention in the longer term.

The Yalmambirra Learning Centre will bring disengaged and socially isolated youth in Wellington, together in a supportive and nurturing environment. The learning centre staff and volunteer community members (including indigenous adults) will provide positive role models and facilitate links with other Barnardos and community services and supports.

Youth Focus

Project: Fresh Minds

The Fresh Minds program will provide a rural community with a resource to trial early intervention based services to young people (12-18 years) who are at risk of suicide, depression or self-harm. The resource will provide services on-site or on an outreach basis as per the individual needs of the client.

The project connects and assists socially isolated individuals or disengaged youth with a focus on solution and evidence based strategies to ensure that requests for counselling are provided.

Youth Focus provides assistance and treatment to youth through a range of youth suicide early intervention and prevention services. The roadmap to address the prevention of youth suicide, depression and self-harm comprises youth counselling, family counselling, peer support camps and programs, mentoring, group work and community education talks and presentations

North Ryde Community Aid and Information Centre

Project: Social Network Building Bus Outings

Social Network Building Bus Outings establish community connections through social group bus outings targeting frail aged/elderly, younger people with a disability and those that may be financially disadvantaged.

Increasing the social participation and inclusion of the socially isolated individuals and disengaged youth by providing "door to door" subsidised bus transport for a range of community social activities including "Clubs for lunch", "picnics", "nursery visits" etc.

Jobsupport

Project: OE for People w/ Sign

Jobsupport is the primary organisation in Sydney specialising in placing, training and maintaining people with a significant intellectual disability in open employment (not sheltered workshops or activity programs). Young people with significant intellectual disability have limited options after school: sheltered workshops, post-school activity programs and open employment.

It is difficult for people with sign and intellectual disability to maintain a job in open employment without Jobsupport's assistance. Jobsupport has 40 clients a year on a waitlist and will utilise the funds to place waitlisted clients.

Stewart House Preventorium

Project: Children from Dubbo and Bourke visit Stewart House

Stewart House provides short term respite care for children aged between 6-16 years from NSW and ACT public schools. The children have special needs due to ill health, emotional or other distress, family problems, financial or social disadvantage, neglect or isolation.

Each year 1,800 children attend Stewart House. The children attend in school district groups of 90 children. On 24 November 2008 48 children from Dubbo and Bourke districts will be attending Stewart House for a 12 day break.

Upper Murray Family Care Interchange Program

Project: "Out There Group"

Interchange's purpose is to support families by providing them with regular breaks from full time care of their child with a disability. Their work focuses on extending the social and recreational networks of young people with a disability through recreational and social experiences, and increases community awareness of the needs and rights of young people with a disability.

The program “Out There Group” will mentor and support a group of socially isolated young people with a disability, meeting fortnightly with volunteer peer mentors, engaging in community activities that will improve self esteem, build social networks and educate them in life skills allowing them to gain independence.

The Youth Junction

Project: Homework Zone

The Youth Junction Inc. was founded in 1999 in response to growing evidence that young people were failing to engage adequately in education, employment and training opportunities, and instead were becoming part of an increasing low school retention, high unemployment and general poor life chances. The Visy Cares Hub is a youth service that focuses on eradicating these inequalities in the lives of young people aged 12-25 years in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

By providing access to new and emerging technologies at the Visy Cares Hub, each young person is able to further build their capacity to connect and communicate with other young people, improve and engage better within their schools and other community settings that prevent them from becoming disconnected and isolated.

Rural Housing Network

Project: Homework Club

Rural Housing Network is a leading provider of social and community housing services that helps to address homelessness and housing affordability by using strong client, community and corporate partnerships.

It has become apparent that their is a lack of services for young people who are disadvantaged and need positive peer support and academic support outside the main school system. Unless these young people are encouraged they can become invisible in their community and disengage. It is the positive mentors and workers from the community who hope to allow these young people to be a part of the community by reengaging them in a flexible program that targets their needs.

Youth Enterprise Trust

Project: YET Wilderness Program

Youth Enterprise Trust (YET) is an independent charitable organisation established in 1991. YET assists disadvantaged young people (aged 16 - 24 years) through a personally challenging and intense program that begins in the wilderness of the Carnarvon Ranges in Central Queensland, before moving to semi-rural South East Queensland for practical follow-up. The program seeks to assist disadvantaged young Australians in the transition to healthy and self-reliant young adulthoods.

Palmerston Association

Project: Family Forum

Palmerston Association is one of the largest specialist non-government providers of alcohol and substance use education and counselling, operating from nine offices in Western Australia.

The Family Forum brings together members of the community who are facing similar issues, such as they have loved ones who are using alcohol and drugs which is affecting their relationships and causing other social problems within the community.

It is recognised that providing opportunities for peer support can assist in reducing isolation, low self esteem and anxiety. The Family Forum provides a unique opportunity of connecting families, professionals and other referral sources.

Youth Off The Streets

Project: Community Development, Doonisde

Youth Off The Streets (YOTS) is a non-denominational and non-discriminatory charity assisting young people aged 12 - 21 years old who are dealing with issues of homelessness, abuse and neglect, exclusion from school and drug and alcohol dependency. Our aim is to provide young people with the education, life skills, support and psychological stability to be able to find employment and live independently.

YOTS is extending its successful community development model to Doonside, a suburb in Western Sydney. YOTS will engage young people from the community through a variety of positive activities, in a safe environment.

YWCA of Darwin

Project: Outreach Education Program

The YWCA works to empower women and facilitate improvements in quality of life for the whole community through the promotion of social justice. The YWCA of Darwin has a focus on youth homelessness, youth at risk and families escaping domestic and family violence. These issues are addressed through a range of programs that are delivered through a team structure: Youth Housing Programs, Youth Programs and Family Programs.

The formation of a second Outreach Education Program, working in partnership with the Northern Territory, Open Education College, offer secondary school subjects by correspondence for those disadvantaged young people who have been excluded from mainstream schooling, many of whom are homeless.

Interchange Central Gippsland

Project: The Virtual Mentor

Interchange Central Gippsland provides respite options for families who have a child/young person with a disability who reside in one of the following four Local Government Area’s – Shire of Baw Baw, City of Latrobe, Shire of South Gippsland or Shire of Bass Coast. Respite is provided through a range of options such as in-home care, recreational opportunities and mentoring. Volunteers are essential to our programs and without their support, these programs would not operate.

The Virtual Mentor research pilot is a collaboration between Interchange’s Central Gippsland, Loddon-Mallee and Victoria University examining the effectiveness of ‘virtual’ volunteer mentoring for isolated young people with Asperger’s Syndrome in two different rural areas. Mentoring happens within the 3D virtual world Second Life, focusing on practical ‘in world’ activities.

Type 1 Diabetes Network

Submitted by an Optus Employee

The Type 1 Diabetes Network is a network of people affected by Type 1 diabetes, creating opportunities to share real-life experiences, information and knowledge in order to make living with diabetes a better experience. We regularly represent the interests of our members to government, health professional forums and the media.

The organisation is run by a dedicated team of volunteers, all of which have Type 1 diabetes.

The project being funded will focus on developing a website that will be used by the network to communicate information about Type 1 Diabetes and to educate and raise awareness of diabetes to members of the community. The website will also include information from health professionals.

ST Kilda PCYC

Submitted by an Optus Employee

Police and Citizen’s Youth Club (PCYC) is a non-profit organisation that aims to improve communities through youth development. It provides low cost, supervised recreational activities for young people, with the majority of youth who attend the club being from low-income families or are Wards of the State. PCYC provide early intervention programs for these young people.

Y-unit is a group of motivated youth, who contribute their time and ideas to the PCYC and local community. This group of youth volunteers are a part of many different programs, striving to held reach the goal of our mission statement, ‘Improving communities through youth development’.

Evolve at Typo Station

Project: Young Men's Program

Evolve at Typo Station is an independent not-for-profit organisation that is highly skilled and successful in working with disengaged young people. They provide them with opportunities to connect with their family, community and workplace through a two-year program run at Typo Station, our bush property located near Whitfield in North-East Victoria. We have also entered an exciting develop phase, with diverse partnerships being forged to provide greater opportunities for young men and women.

The Young Men’s Program is the core program offered at Typo Station, and provides the platform for new programs currently being developed and rolled out. The program is two years in length and incorporates an intense five-week program which includes basic skills development and hiking, supported by ongoing home-based mentoring.

Centacare Catholic Family Services

Project: Computer Skills for Refugee Mothers

Centacare’s Refugee and Settlement Program provides humanitarian entrants and refugees with a bridge to new beginnings in Australia. Refugees experience hardship and suffer extreme emotional trauma prior to arrival. Once here, they face the challenges of fitting into unfamiliar surroundings that lack the social networks of their home country. Centacare is the helping hand that enables them to make a fresh start and helps facilitate a smooth transition towards permanent settlement.

The project envisages computer training for 24 newly arrived refugee mothers in two training programs; each carried over a six-week period. The aim of the project is to enhance their access to resources available on a range of social services, to enable them to enter the Australian workforce, to help their children with studies and to increase social interaction.

Marymead Child and Family Centre

Project: Get On With It

Marymead provides services to children and young people, and their families, who are experiencing disadvantage and stress and require support. The services include residential programs for young people who are not able to live at home with foster care, counselling, residential and respite programs for young people with disabilities, family support and groups for parents and children. Last year Marymead celebrated 40 years of working with the most disadvantaged in the Canberra community.

The Get On With It program provides IT access for a group of young people in a residential program who have limited social connections and for whom access to internet, email, music and games will create new social, educational and recreational opportunities; the computers will also be used to assist with employment applications and job search.

Essere (to be) Living Skills

Project: Leadership Programs

Essere is a registered charity formed in 2004. There mission is to aid individuals to attain a healthy emotional, mental and physical state of wellbeing, by teaching skills and strategies to help them make better choices so as to build resilience and increase self-esteem. They are unique in that they are preventative in their approach. They aim to prevent bullying, depression, anti-social behaviour and youth suicide.

The leadership program is a highly effective program that enables participants to find their strengths by:

• Modelling good leadership qualities
• Goal setting
• Building positive relationships within a group
• Active listening
• Turning negative experiences into positive action
• This program assists participants to identify and build on their positive strengths and to evaluate alternate sources of stimulation and direction.

The Shack Youth Outreach

Project: Employment Plus

The Shack (non-government supported) was opened in 1992 by a group of concerned residents due to the high number of drugs and youth related crime. The Shack fights juvenile crime by counselling youth and providing vital services that decrease drug use, crime, homelessness and depression.

Employment Plus is a program that assists young people to reconnect with the community by paying for their studies and consequently facilitating their job search. Firstly we help the youth by counselling them for underlying issues, eg drugs, and then we train, advise and assist with job search.

Urban Arts Base - WAYS Youth Services

Project: 2009 Project Painting Workshops

Urban Arts Base (UAB) is an innovative community arts project which assists young people experiencing or at risk of developing mental health issues. UAB provides a safe, youth friendly environment where young people can regain the confidence and skills necessary to re-engage with education, employment and social and community networks. UAB is the only exclusively mental health focused arts project for young people in NSW.

UAB will employ one Artist for 12-week art workshops for one day per week for the Project Painting Workshops over January to March 2009. The artworks created will be publicly displayed at the UAB Youth Week Art Exhibition in April 2009.

Fairfield Community Resource Centre

Projects: Easy Learning

Fairfield Community Resource is an independent non-profit community based, registered organisation. They provide programs and services specifically around Children, Community Development and Employment

Easy Learning will assist young people to develop knowledge and self-learning skills to manage life long learning. The project worker will support young people to develop an individual plan, to make community links and gain information, so that young people can achieve their career and education goals.

St. Vincent de Paul

Project: Education Support Scheme

The St Vincent de Paul Society provides assistance to over 660,000 people each year. Much of the Society's work is carried out through conferences, whose members visit people in their own homes and provide material assistance, support and friendship bringing essential services to people struggling within our community.

Education Support Scheme gets our young clients off Newstart and into employment via Education/Training.