Career information nights:

Are you passionate about supporting young people to achieve their full potential?

Could you support young people in Out of Home Care to make positive lifestyle choices and develop independent living skills?

An award-winning employer and not-for-profit organisation, we’ve been changing lives for 30 years! We’re seeking  Residential Carers for permanent ongoing and casual positions in Wodonga and Wangaratta.

Residential Carers support young people living in Out of Home Care because they cannot live with their families or in foster or kinship care.

A Wodonga-based not-for-profit organisation, Junction provides Out of Home Care for 12-17 year olds at residential houses across north-east Victoria.

Residential Carers also support young people at the Wodonga Youth Refuge, which provides emergency accommodation for 16 to 17 year olds and helps them to get back on track and move home or learn the skills to live on their own and secure permanent accommodation.

Junction has ongoing recruitment for residential carers to join our continued Care team because:

• Unfortunately the need for Out of Home Care for young people is growing
• Residential carers often move onto other roles within Junction Support Services
• Being a residential carer involves shift work
• Residential care can be a challenging role because carers are working with young people who may have experienced trauma such as child abuse, neglect or violence and have complex needs.

Continued Care manager Annie Shirley, who joined Junction as a residential carer 13 years ago, says it’s one of the most rewarding and challenging roles within the organisation.

“Our carers work with some of the most high-risk, complex and vulnerable young people in our community,” she said.

Annie says it’s incredibly rewarding to support a young person to make positive choices in their lives and to achieve their potential.

Residential carers receive training and ongoing support and we match the skills and experience of successful applicants to the young people in our care.

Recent changes to legislation mean there are now many other qualifications, such as nursing that enable you to apply. To find out if you are eligible, please contact our Senior HR officer Ginny Krich on 02 6043 7442

Apply today at site.site.junction.org.au/work-with-us

Charity events run by the team at ANZ Albury Wodonga have raised $100,000 for Junction Support Services and the Albury Wodonga Cancer Centre.

All us at Junction Support Services would like to thank the local ANZ team and to ANZ ambassador Dylan Alcott for helping us to support some of the most disadvantaged people in our community.

A gold medallist Paralympian in wheelchair basketball and tennis and six-time tennis Grand Slam winner, Dylan hosted a tennis event at Wodonga Tennis Centre and was the keynote speaker at a charity auction dinner on 4 October.

A recent winner of the US Open and motivational speaker, Dylan said: I want to help young kids who are just like me, struggling to come to terms with their disability, fulfil their potential and achieve their dreams.”

Junction Support Services chairperson Sandra Dalton said she was overwhelmed by generosity of people on the night of the charity auction and all the businesses small, medium and large that donated goods and services.

“Special thanks to our ‘Friends of Junction’, Lindenwarrah at Milawa, Office Choice, in High Street, Wodonga, Delux Cutz, in Stanley Street, Wodonga, and Caltex, in Melbourne Road Wodonga, for donating prizes,” she said.

“Thanks also to Wodonga Tennis Club for hosting Dylan and children at a fundraising charity tennis event.”ANZ Regional Executive Conor Noonan said the event was another chance for the local business community to support two organisations that contribute greatly to the region’s social and economic strength.

“We’re proud to support both the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre and Junction Support Services which provide essential community services for people struggling with illness or poverty,” he said.

The funds raised are still being tallied and divided up, but – depending on the amount received – Junction plans to support people in need through:

• A Helping Hand for Young People Fund
  To cover the cost of obtaining birth certificates and second-hand furniture and white goods for young people in need
  Sandra said: “A lot of young people who come to us having grown up amid the chaos of family violence, alcohol abuse and drug use do not have simple life documentation such as birth certificates. If you don’t have a birth certificate you cannot get your driver’s license or a job.”
• A Leaving Care Counselling Fund
  To provide psychological support for young people who have been in Out of Home Care because they cannot live with their families or in foster care and need support as they transition to independent living.
  Sandra said: “The average age of young people leaving home in Australia is 20-something but young people who have been in the Out of Home Care – some of the most vulnerable young people in our community – leave when they are 18. This fund will allow us to offer much-needed additional psychological counselling.”
• A mobile counselling space
  To take our Families and Children’s workers out to support to the people who need it.
  Sandra said: “We’d like to obtain a bus and converted it into a safe space for people in need to connect with us and for us to support them. This would allow us to go to primary schools, secondary schools, community events and reach out to young people in the places that they are.”

• Dylan Alcott’s autobiography Able is due out in November. You can find out more about Dylan and his foundation at dylanalcottfoundation.com.au

Did you know that every night an estimated 28,000 young Australians between 12-25 are homeless? In most cases, these young people have left home to escape family violence, child abuse and family breakdown.

Wednesday 18 April was Youth Homelessness Matters Day, a campaign to raise awareness and put the spotlight on young people at risk of homelessness or who are experiencing homelessness.

We’ve been supporting people experiencing homelessness since 1989 when our work began with one program in Wangaratta.

Today , we are the leading youth homelessness agency in Wodonga and we run a Youth Refuge proving emergency accommodation, helps young people get back on track and either get back home or learn the skills to live on their own and secure permanent accommodation.

In 2016-17 our youth refuge supported 27 young people.

We also provide Out of Home Care to about 25 young people across north-east Victoria who cannot live with their families or in foster or kinship care and then Leaving Care support and mentoring to those young people when they leave the State Care system upon turning 18.

Unfortunately, young people who are leaving the State Care system are among those at greatest risk of homelessness.

Surveys by the CREATE Foundation and Care Leavers Australia Network found:

· 35% were homeless in the first year of leaving care

· 46% of boys were involved in the juvenile justice system

· 29% were unemployed

· 41% were pregnant during their adolescence

We join the Home Stretch campaign in calling for all state and federal governments to extend the leaving care age from 18 to 21.

The United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand and Canada have extended Leaving Care to an optional 21 years.

The only state or territory to have so far pledged to raise the leaving care age to 21 is Tasmania.

What can you do to help?

· Join the national campaign at thehomestretch.org.au to extend the leaving care age

· Donate to support our Leaving Care work: site.site.junction.org.au/campaigns/support-programs-change-lives

· Become a Leaving Care mentor: visit site.site.junction.org.au/volunteer-with-us, phone 02 6043 7400 or drop into our office at 9/155 Melbourne Road Wodonga to collect some information.

One of our former carers for young people has organised the donation of 12 TVs to be used for young people in care.

For eight years, Chris worked with our team providing out of home care for young people.

Chris is now working as a tradesman renovating a local motel.

When the project manager suggested that TVs being removed could be donated to charity Chris instantly thought of local young people living in out of home care.

“I loved the job and I’m still in contact with some of the young people I cared for. They’re in their mid-20s but they like to let me know what they are doing,” he said.

His favourite memories of the role were taking young people to activities such as AFL games, Luna Park and the Royal Melbourne Show.

“Those sort of activities are things most teenagers take for granted but the young people I was working with had often never experienced that. It made them feel like they were important and it was great fun,” Chris said.

“I had an awesome childhood but sadly, many young people don’t have that same opportunity.”

Our CEO Corienne Krich thanked Chris for his support.

“It was lovely that his first thought was for young people in Out of Home Care,” she said.

To donate to support our work with young people, click here.