Media Release by The Hon Jenny Macklin MP

Extra help for young people in out-of-home care

Joint Media Release with:

  • The Hon Bill Shorten MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services

The Australian Government today announced a $165,000 grant for the CREATE Foundation to provide more support and help to young people in out-of-home care.

CREATE will use the funding for its CREATE Your Future program, providing support to young people leaving out-of-home care, one of the most vulnerable groups in our community.

The CREATE Your Future program is an effective empowerment program that helps and encourages young people to develop skills such as job readiness, health, nutrition, life and independent living skills.

Funding will support:

  • updating the existing CREATE Your Future website to improve information provided to young people as they leave care; and
  • developing resources and training materials to help agencies respond to the particular needs of this group of young people.

We know that young people leaving out-of-home care face many challenges.

In the five years between 2003 and 2008, the number of children in out-of-home care rose by more than 50 per cent, to over 30,000 children.

The new funding was announced at the first summit of CREATE’s National Youth Advisory Council in Sydney today.

The CREATE Your Future website has been specifically developed for young people transitioning from care and will be promoted throughout the out-of-home care sector, targeting youth services and related departments to keep workers informed about the issues and services available to young people.

With this funding CREATE will also further develop the CREATE Your Future training package and train the trainer package as national resources. This will give agencies, services and government departments access to national resources that will assist young people during the transition process.

Increasing the capability of service providers to understand child protection related issues is an important part of developing the National Child Protection Framework.

CREATE Foundation is an Australian not-for-profit organisation that seeks to empower children and young people placed in out-of-home care through a combination of direct service provision and advocacy.