|
Chapter 1: Introduction(Also available as a PDF)The purpose of the study was to determine models of best practice in the prevention of, and early intervention into, youth homelessness by identifying and describing:
The collapsing full-time youth labour market during the early to mid 1970s underpinned the progressive development in Australia and other western nations of specific policies and programs, not only to respond to youth unemployment, but to address a range of associated social issues - such as homelessness - which were named and deemed worthy of government action. The emergence of prevention as a policy objective, and of early intevention as a strategy, can be tracked through an examination of significant reports published in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1982, the Senate Standing Committee on Social Welfare reported on youth homelessness in Australia and recommended the continuation of funding for youth crisis accommodation and income support for homeless young people. The rationale for this included an acknowledgment that in the context of unemployment and recession, family breakdown and the subsequent leaving home by young people were realities which required response. The focus at this time was on developing crisis accommodation options for young people once they had become homeless. In 1985 all Commonwealth crisis accommodation programs were consolidated under the Supported Accommodation Assistance (SAAP) Act 1985. Within the Youth Supported Accommodation Program (YSAP) component of SAAP, services were oriented to young people 'who are homeless as a result of crisis and who need to move towards more appropriate accommodation, including independent living where possible and appropriate' (Chesterman 1988, p.11). The first evaluation report of SAAP Homes Away from Home (Chesterman 1988, p.46) asserted that SAAP should not have "a primary focus on those at risk of becoming homeless", but should leave this to other programs. It was suggested SAAP would have some preventive functions such as community education on SAAP issues (Chesterman 1988, p.44). Early intervention into, and/or prevention of, young people leaving home and becoming homeless, were not raised as matters for attention for SAAP. This typified the responses of governments to youth homelessness at this time. The importance of pursuing a preventive approach in relation to youth homelessness was a recurring theme within the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) report Our Homeless Children released in 1989. This watershed report outlined in detail the major elements of a comprehensive prevention and early intervention agenda. The report located prevention within the children's rights framework of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, a framework which asserted the holding of fundamental human rights by children and young people, while at the same time affirming the role of families. Homelessness among young people was seen to be a result of a wide range of interrelated factors, including poverty, unemployment, the practices of state welfare departments, inadequacies in accommodation options, and family stress. In recommending how governments should respond, the report specifically acknowledged the importance of efforts to reunite young people with families where possible. Family reconciliation was identified as a major means of preventing long-term homelessness and "should be a primary aim of youth accommodation services where it is both possible and appropriate" (HREOC 1989, p.211), through the resourcing of youth services to engage in negotiation, conciliation, counselling, provision of information and assistance with access to services the family requires (ibid. p.183). The report also called for the building up of protective factors, such as a network of support services to strengthen families, so that substitute care arrangements would be used less frequently.
In the mid 1980s, Australian youth policy had shifted to have a dominant focus on increased retention in education and vocational training, and within this logic an increasing attention to 'disadvantaged', 'marginalised' (Irving, Maunders and Sherrington 1995), or 'at risk' young people became evident. The 1991 Report of the Australian Education Council Review Committee (AECRC), Young People's Participation in Post-compulsory Education and Training (The Finn Report), endorsed a greater articulation and integration of services which targeted at risk young people, and specifically homeless young people, within the goal of increasing education and vocational training retention, and recommended the Students at Risk Program be extended. Within this logic, prevention of unemployment, homelessness and a range of other social problems, was oriented towards the retention of at risk young people in education or vocational training. In the area of family policy, the articulation of prevention and early intervention goals clearly underpinned the final report of The National Council for the International Year of the Family, Creating The Links: Families and Social Responsibility (1994). The report calls for preventive programs to address family violence and child abuse, citing in particular, systemic family support services, relationship education and counselling, child care, community education initiatives, adequate family income support, secure and affordable housing and a comprehensive response to family violence and child abuse (Cass 1994). The report also suggests that the National Child Protection Strategy make provision for the development of early intervention programs and increased investment in parenting programs. In 1995 the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Community Affairs (HRSCCA) released A Report on Aspects of Youth Homelessness (The Morris Report). The Inquiry was established as a response to concerns expressed about income security payments to young people. The report strongly asserted that early intervention into, and prevention of, youth homelessness would require changes to both policy structures and service delivery approaches (HRSCCA 1995, p.271). The range of services identified as necessary for early intervention included family mediation and counselling, family services, school based strategies, and consideration as to how a range of groups with special needs could be adequately responded to. Key recommendations were that:
The Burdekin, Cass and Morris reports all acknowledged the importance of supplementing crisis support services with broad preventive strategies to build up protective factors, and early intervention services to assist young people and their families, when difficulties emerge. The importance of a wide range of policies and services in the development of comprehensive preventive and early intervention responses has been highlighted repeatedly in these reports. Youth homelessness emerges as a multi-faceted phenomenon requiring a range of responses across a number of policy and service delivery sites. The initial framework adopted in this research reflects the above complexity. As the research progressed and the authors clarified how prevention and early intervention could be understood, it became clear that the dominant focus in this study was on understanding and responding to early home leaving which results in homelessness. Any examination of social policy and practice must define key terms, and this examination provides the starting point for Chapter 2.
|
