Reaching out
A GROUNDBREAKING Geelong initiative that has seen youth homelessness nearly halved should be adopted Australia-wide, according to city leaders.
A new report released today reveals that in three years The Geelong Project has led to a 40 per cent reduction in homeless young students, a 20 per cent reduction in early school leaving and a 50 per cent drop in school disengagement.
The project sees schools, youth services and agencies form a partnership to intervene early with young people who are seen as at risk of leaving school, disengaging, becoming homeless and turning to crime.
The collaborative community and schools and services model is led by Barwon Child, Youth and Family, which has worked with headspace, Geelong Local Learning and Employment Network, researchers from Swinburne and three pilot schools — Northern Bay College, Newcomb Secondary College and Geelong High School.
The Barwon organisation’s youth services manager, Peter Jacobson, said more than 1550 students from the pilot schools were surveyed each year, with at-risk children then screened and provided varying levels of intervention.
“The innovation is having a proactive and systematic ap- proach,” Mr Jacobson said.
“It’s a service reform. The way we used to do it was to wait until kids were in crisis and then provide the service.