Youth Partnerships: coordinating services to help young people stay on track
Overview
Youth Partnerships is a new initiative by the Victorian Government which will design and test new ways for the education, youth and family support, justice, homelessness and mental health sectors to work more collaboratively to support individual young people experiencing problems.
Over three years, the Government will support service providers to work together to ensure:
- A greater focus on early intervention
- Consistent approaches to assessment and referral of young people across these sectors
- Clear entry points into the right youth services at the right time, including tailored education options
Youth Partnerships will develop new resources to support all the sectors that work with young people to identify those in need of support, assess their needs and refer them for extra support in a consistent, efficient way.
Seven demonstration sites are currently being established, to test and refine these resources on the ground, and trial new approaches to delivering services to make sure young people receive coordinated and holistic support. Each demonstration site is governed by a local, cross-sectoral committee.
A new, whole-of-Government Youth Partnerships Secretariat located in the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is also being established, with the initiative funded until mid 2013.
Goals
The key goals of Youth Partnerships are to improve engagement in education and training, and to reduce the escalation of social, individual and behavioural problems for vulnerable young people.
Some young people face barriers to staying in school or training, and need support to address these barriers and to find the education program that best suits them. Young people may be in touch with a wide range of agencies – for example schools, youth services, and mental health services – but often these services are not well-connected with each other, meaning young people don’t always get holistic support, and have to navigate the maze of services on their own.
Youth Partnerships involves designing and testing new ways of organising services across sectors, to ensure that young people don’t fall through the cracks, and so that teachers, police and other workers in touch with young people know how to identify the early signs of problems, and know who to refer a young person to for extra support.
Opportunities for involvement
Community services, schools and police in the demonstration project areas will play a key role in the implementation of Youth Partnerships. The Government welcomes any community organisations that work with young people in the demonstration site areas to become involved in this initiative. Organisations will be advised of opportunities for involvement at the local level, and information will be regularly updated through this website.
Organisations outside the demonstration site areas will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the initiative as it progresses and the common resources that are developed and tested through Youth Partnerships. Opportunities for feedback will be announced via this website.
More information
Youth Partnerships