By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A pioneering Geelong youth homelessness program has expanded to Canada.
Two sites in Ontario were now trialling the Geelong Project, said Barwon Child Youth and Family (BCYF) youth services manager Peter Jacobsen.
He recently returned from three weeks in Canada’s biggest city, Toronto, outlining the project to charity and government representatives.
“They’re experiencing the same issues, with similarly growing youth homelessness,” Mr Jacobsen said.
“As in our situation, they have come to a point where it’s clear that any impact on youth homelessness numbers will only come from early intervention.
“Early intervention is the key strategy of the model.”
The Geelong Project is a partnership between schools and youth services to enable early intervention with young people at secondary school level who are identified as being at risk.
But the program has struggled for State and Federal Government funding despite its international success.
The Geelong Project has been identified as a leading program in reforming traditional approaches to youth homelessness policy.
Barwon Child, Youth and Family (BCYF) is funding the program due to the lack of government funding.
Mr Jacobsen said the project was only active in three Geelong secondary schools because of the funding restrictions.
“We could easily be running the Geelong Project in another 14 schools.”
Mr Jacobsen said the Canadian pilot sites would be evaluated before the program was expanded to other locations.
“The program involves a significant reorientation of how existing services operate in regard to youth homelessness,” Mr Jacobsen said.
“We worked on tailoring the concepts and approach behind the program to the particular service platform and community needs in the pilot sites.”
Mr Jacobsen said BCYF was collecting outcome data from the program so far to support renewed funding applications.
“We will shortly have a full year of implementation and see the impact it’s had and we hope that will enable the Geelong Project to receive greater funding.”
