Hope Street, a leading specialist youth homelessness service provider in Victoria, plans to establish a First Response Youth Service in the City of Whittlesea, a growth corridor reporting high rates of youth homelessness.

Hope Street has been providing specialist homelessness housing and support programs in the City of Whittlesea since 2008, and the First Response Youth Service will complete the local place-based offering. There is currently no youth refuge in the area.

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The Hope Street First Response Youth Service in Whittlesea will incorporate construction of a purpose-built 13-bedroom supported crisis accommodation centre (youth refuge) and will also offer a 24/7 wrap-around response including a mobile outreach component. The service aims to:

• Provide crisis accommodation to 100 young people per year
• Provide mobile outreach services to 120 young people per year
• Provide holistic, wrap-around case management and integrated support
• Respond to complex issues and needs, making appropriate referrals to specialist support
• Assist young people with the transition to new living arrangement
• Link young people with supports in their local communities, as part of a local place response
• Provide support onsite 24/7, 365 days per year in the refuge, plus after-hours service via the mobile outreach component

In partnership with the City of Whittlesea, a site has been identified in South Morang, close to the train line and shopping centre as well as other community amenities.

Russell Hopkins, Director of Community Services at the City of Whittlesea, said the Council is looking forward to the project coming to fruition. "Hope Street is a trusted partner with a strong track record of meeting the needs of vulnerable young people. Given the rates of issues such as youth disengagement, youth suicide and youth mental health in municipalities such as Whittlesea, Hope Street’s proposal to work with Council in the provision of much needed emergency accommodation is particularly important," he said.

See Whittlesea First Response for further details.

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