Publications

It is important to note that the toolkit is grounded in the lives of the 46 families who participated in Homelessness to Home. The project was enriched and strengthened by the partnership that developed between the families and the Homelessness to Home project team.

This evaluation was undertaken to inform Micah Projects reflections on our work practices with people experiencing homelessness in the context of a hot spot. It is based on interviews with people experiencing homelessness, Micah Projects Street to Home workers and the Mater Community Clinical Nurse based at the Brisbane Homelessness Service Centre. The evaluation was funded by Micah Projects.

The following information outlines what took place between April 2008 and July 2008 in relation to relocating 58 people from Riverside Drive, South Brisbane who were experiencing homelessness.

To summarise, Micah Projects, through its Street to Home service, worked closely with most of these people who were advised that the Queensland Police Service would be exercising 'Move On' powers and the site cleared by Brisbane City Council.

The Street to Home team engaged intensely at the site and then increasingly with individuals and household groups in a range of locations across Brisbane. Police also had a constant presence at Riverside Drive. The Mater Health Services Community Clinical Nurse worked closely with three individuals who had serious health problems and injuries.

The majority of people at Riverside Drive expressed anger, even rage about the situation. Dealing with this was very challenging for workers, especially the front line Assessment and Referral and Street to Home teams at the Brisbane Homelessness Service Centre.

By the 25 July, after four months of focused effort, homeless people were not living at the Riverside Drive area and of the 58 people Street to Home had worked with:

• 26 people were in temporary accommodation
• 15 people were in long term housing
• 14 people left without requesting or accepting assistance and were not in contact
• 3 people were still homeless and in regular contact with Street to Home.

While the project was limited to three case studies, they are representative of people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, and were from three different service areas of Micah Projects.

The pathway analysis provides specific insights into the homelessness service system from the knowledge generated about how responses are working in practice.

Our hope is that this response, Voices from the Margins, provides a broad range of responses to the Green Paper from people who have directly experienced homelessness, as well as input from practitioners who provide direct support to people.

The purpose of the project was to implement leadership training, initiate community development projects and networking, and provide mentoring support to the young women who are peer leaders with Young Mothers for Young Women (YMYW).

The Getting What You Want: A Peer Guide To Parenting is made up of a number of topics that best answer questions and address issues that young women have about parenting.

The Handbook can be read and thought about alone or groups of young women may like to use the handbook as a guide for workshops about parenting.

Peer education is based on the belief that young women are often more receptive to and influenced by their peers and aims to enhance the information provided. Peer education is not only an approach to education and informing values and beliefs but also encourages skills development such as self-direction, decision making, communication, leadership and teamwork.

This program has been designed by Young Mothers for Young Women, with the aim of creating a training program acknowledging the needs and interests of groups of young pregnant and parenting women. It is therefore designed to be flexible and easy to implement. Getting What You Want: Pathways to Employment, Education and Training is a self-directed program focussing on creating pathways towards returning to either education, employment or training. As a group, participants decide what they want to learn about and how they will learn it.

There are many things in pregnant and parenting young women’s lives that impact on what they do as women and as mothers. This program can help to explore areas of young women’s lives and what they need to be able to do to further education, employment and training opportunities. Getting What You Want: A Peer Guide to Facilitating Workshops should be read before starting any sessions.

Getting What You Want: Pathways to Employment, Education and Training is a self-directed program focussing on creating pathways towards returning to either education, employment or training. As a group, participants decide what they want to learn about and how they will learn it. There are many things in pregnant and parenting young women’s lives that impact on what they do as women and as mothers. This program can help to explore areas of young women’s lives and what they need to be able to do to further education, employment and training opportunities.