Help coming for troubled youths
A multimillion dollar youth hub to address a rise in Christchurch youth homelessness and mental health issues is on the cards after years of battling to get the project off the ground.
Youth Hub Trust chairwoman Sue Bagshaw has been trying to find suitable land since 2015 to build a one-stop-shop for teenagers and young adults including youth health, counselling, social and employment services as well as emergency accommodation.
Anglican Care, the Anglican Church’s social service agency, stepped in to help last year and bought the old bowling club site on Salisbury St in central Christchurch or $4 million.
The trust will lease the 4500 m2 land to build a youth hub including accommodation for 20 people.
Bagshaw said the trust would need to fundraise $10m – through local and central Government and charity – to build the hub.
Bagshaw, who runs the 298 Youth Health Service, has grappled to keep up with an unprecedented number of clients over the last three years.
It regularly closed its books as as hundreds of young people sought its medical and counselling help.
The new hub would expand 298 Youth Health with more desperately-needed services and accommodation.
A Christchurch City Council (CCC) street count last year found 215 people were sleeping rough in the city, some as young as 12 with addiction issues.
A survey of the 1500 people attending 298 Youth Health between July 2014 and April 2015 showed 42 per cent were experiencing ‘‘major housing issues’’.
About 40 per cent of the 250 teenagers receiving the Youth Payment or Young Parent Payment in that period described themselves as ‘‘technically homeless’’.
‘‘We probably need way more than 20 beds,’’ Bagshaw said.
Many of the homeless young people had been in foster care and needed a place to transition from that to independent living, she said.
Others were going through ‘‘strife with their family’’ and were couch-surfing or living in the streets.
‘‘We want to give them space to sort out their head.’’
Stacey Galyer, 16, was referred to 298 Youth Health last year by her school counsellor.
She had been suffering from anxiety and depression and was struggling to cope in an emotionally-abusive household, she said.
‘‘I needed to get out of my house and get away ... to focus on my mental health,’’ she said.
‘‘I felt really trapped, but there was nowhere for me to go.’’
Galyer saw Bagshaw fortnightly at 298 Youth Health for several months. She was now living with one of her parents and feeling more settled, but believed the youth hub would be beneficial for young people struggling with their mental health.
‘‘It will give them a feeling of safety and community,’’ she said.
Anglican Bishop Victoria Matthews said she was ‘‘delighted’’ the church could help.
Bishop Victoria Matthews will officially carry out a ground blessing at the site, 109 Salisbury St, on March 22 at 4pm, which will mark the launch of the official fundraising campaign to build the new youth hub.