Young Voices, Big Impact: Anchor’s Specialist Homeless Children’s Worker Project
Helping vulnerable children to leave
homelessness behind.
On this page…
What happens to children who follow their parents into homelessness?
Children who accompany their parents into homelessness rarely get asked a simple but important question by support services: “How are you? and what do you need?”
The reality of many homelessness services is that when a parent or family reaches out for homelessness support, their children are not provided personalised support to tackle individual needs, nor helped with what they are experiencing.
Far too often, children experiencing homelessness are left to make sense of what is happening on their own. They are confronted with experiences that they don’t have the tools to manage, inevitably leading to lower quality of life as adults.
Quick Facts
Without adequate, targeted, and caring support, children in homelessness experience:
Trauma
Social disconnection
Disengagement from education
Higher chance of returning to homelessness as an adult*
*2021 study from BMC Psychiatry found that 50% of children who experience homelessness will go on to experience homelessness and housing instability as an adult. https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-021-03142-0
In The News
ABC News profiles Anchor’s pilot support program helping the children accompanying their parents into homelessness.
Program Evaluation
How We Measured Success
We evaluated our pilot project to ensure our pilot project made the intended impact. This included surveying the children who were supported, as well as their parents, to get an insight into how the support made a positive difference in their lives.
A common theme in the feedback was that the children and young people felt exceptionally safe and comfortable in the practitioner’s company, often stating feelings of ease or the ability “to be themselves”. All parents reported feeling more supported as a parent, and most saw a rise in their children’s confidence and self-belief.
The evaluation found that the program was a vital support to both children and parents during a very challenging time in their lives.
Read our evaluation summary report by clicking here. If you wish to receive the full evaluation report, please email info@anchor.org.au.
Help us with this important work
Help us keep providing children with the targeted support they need to leave homelessness behind.
Our pilot project has concluded for now, but we are determined to ensure this project has a lasting impact in the lives of vulnerable young children and young people who come into the homelessness system.
If you are interested in supporting this project including funding, philanthropy, or grant opportunities, we would love to hear from you.
For any queries, please contact Leanne Nicholson: leanne.nicholson@anchor.org.au or 0461 521 353.
