Premier’s Youth Initiative
The Premier’s Youth Initiative (PYI) is a support service for young people leaving statutory out-of-home care, who are identified as being vulnerable to experiencing homelessness on exit from care. The program aims to build the long-term capacity and resilience of young people in order to permanently divert them from the homelessness service system.
Who benefits?
All young people in out-of-home care in PYI delivery locations, aged between 16 years and 9 months and 17 years and 6 months are screened for eligibility into PYI.
Eligibility lists are provided to PYI services who then manage the process of offering PYI services to eligible young people.
What are the benefits for young people participating in the Premier’s Youth Initiative?
PYI provides young people with a combination of personal advice, mentoring, transitional support and accommodation.
Young people entering PYI have access to:
- Personal Advisor
The Personal Advisor acts as central contact for all PYI services. They work to provide helpful advice in a mentoring capacity on how to live independently. The Personal Advisor will support the young person to identify and work toward their personal and leaving care plan goals, connect them to positive personal support networks and help the young person access any support services they need.
- Education and Employment Mentoring
All young people entering PYI will have access to education and employment mentoring to help them understand their interests and aptitude to identify and find suitable education, training and/or employment options.
- Transitional Support Worker
Some young people in the program will be offered transitional accommodation support. These young people will have a Transitional Support Worker (TSW) who will assist them to develop their skills and knowledge to manage their own accommodation, both current and in the future.
- Accommodation
Some young people in the program will be offered subsidised accommodation.
PYI participants receiving accommodation in the program will be offered the opportunity to take over the lease of a tenancy when they are ready.
Where is the Premier’s Youth Initiative available?
- Hunter Central Coast
- Illawarra Shoalhaven and Southern NSW
- Mid North Coast and Northern NSW
- Nepean Blue Mountains
- New England
- South West Sydney
- Western NSW
Evaluation of the Premier’s Youth Initiative
In 2016 the Department of Communities and Justice engaged the Centre for Evidence and Implementation (CEI) and its partners Monash University and the Behavioural Insights Team to deliver the evaluation of the Premier’s Youth Initiative pilot. Findings from the evaluation have been positive and have shown that PYI is a promising intervention for diverting young people who are exiting out-of-home-care from the homelessness service system.
The report delivers important findings and recommendations that will guide the next steps for delivering this program into the future.
Evaluation of the Premier’s Youth Initiative (PDF, 6241.14 KB)