Shining a light on youth homelessness, this year’s Wenona School ‘Amnesty Sleepout’ saw over 60 Wenona students sleeping on pieces of cardboard in the school’s gym for a one-night sleepout. Against a general theme of ‘service learning’, Streetwork were one of 3 or 4 charities on hand to also give the students a first-hand experience of some of the daily outreach activities we engage in to build trust in our relationships with the young people we support. Graffiti-writing and songwriting activities were interspersed with some key learnings about how Streetwork goes about turning young lives around. Many of the young people we work with have experienced or are enduring homelessness themselves, so it was fitting that monies raised by the event went directly to Taldumande Youth Services, one of many Sydney-based agencies that support vulnerable and homeless children and young people aged 12 to 24 years, and their families.
Citing growing incidents of family breakdown, domestic violence and substance abuse, Taldumande’s Nikki Thomas spoke about the high demand for their services stating that: ‘youth homelessness is often less visible than adult homelessness, because young people will often couch surf until alternative beds are available.’