Youth Xpress

Youth Xpress is the Youth Connections provider for the Bayside, Kingston and Glen Eira Region. Youth Xpress is a partnership of four organisations: Taskforce (Lead Agent), Inner Melbourne VET Cluster, Southern Directions and SkillsPlus. Youth Connections is a program funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). The program will provide a safety net for young people who have disengaged or are at risk of disengaging from education. Services will include flexible one to one case management and group support. Service delivery will be tailored to the young person's personal situation and circumstances and build resilience, while improving personal skills and wellbeing of the young person. There are no costs associated with this service.

Target Group: Young people at risk of not attaining Yr 12 or equivalent and not transitioning into further study, training, employment. Age group 13-19yrs.

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Barriers faced by young people who access the program may include but are not limited to:

• Educational factors: poor literacy/numeracy, low academic performance, dissatisfaction with school e.g. bullying.

• Personal factors: mental health issues, disabilities, poor health, substance abuse, low self-esteem, carer responsibilities, under-developed social skills, lack of self discipline or an inability to conform to acceptable community standards. Social, cultural and community factors: bullying, homelessness, family violence and dysfunction, a history of criminal behaviour or institutionalisation, significant financial barriers, carer responsibilities

Young people will be assessed and placed in one of three service delivery types Our School Based service will Assist young people who are current students and who are most at risk of disengaging.

An example of this is a young man who is attending school about 95% of the time, whilst he is physically present he does not participate in any class activities, have any extra curricular pursuits, when he does choose to engage it is usually to disrupt the class. Our second service type is aimed at young people who are still enrolled in school but at imminent risk of disengaging or have disengaged in the last 3 months Lauren was bullied and did not cope with main stream school so she decided to go on and complete her year 10 pass at TAFE. Lauren lives with her father and has regular contact with her mum 2-3 days per week. Lauren suffers from low self esteem issues and finds it hard to communicate with her dad. She is not attending TAFE as she feels intimidated attending a large tertiary institution. She wants to participate in education but needs support and other options to support her pathway – an example may be attending a Community education provider to achieve her Year 10 pass, they have smaller classes and Youth Xpress may refer her to our in-house psychologist to work on improving her confidence

The majority of our clients will fall into our last service type as those who are severely disengaged from family and community and have not attended education for 3 months or more Simon is a 16 year old who is referred by the police following a first- time offence, and before his court- case. Simon has a turbulent home- life including constant conflict with his father due to his friendship choices and lack of motivation to participate in anything. Simon stopped attending school when he was 14 He is a regular cannabis user and binge drinks on weekends. He has low literacy levels and is not interested in returning to academic education – he would like to do an apprenticeship. A possible outcome for Simon would be that he attends a couple of short re-engagement courses to learn the skills of participating in a group, he may attend anger management sessions and participate in a work experience activity before attending a Trade Taster