Youth Homelessness Matters Day: Community Takes a Stand
Yesterday marked Youth Homelessness Matters Day (YHMD) — a national awareness campaign led by Yfoundations, calling for urgent action to end youth homelessness in Australia.
In the past year, over 280,000 people sought support from specialist homelessness services across the country. Of these, more than 43,000 were young people under 25 who presented alone, often with nowhere else to turn. Despite this overwhelming need, services are stretched beyond capacity and too many young people are being turned away due to a lack of available accommodation, resources, and staff.
To help raise awareness and be part of the solution, our teams from the Armidale Youth Homelessness Support Service, as well as the Inverell and Glen Innes Specialist Homelessness Support Services, came together to host a public event at Armidale Central Plaza.
The day featured a community quiz, many great conversations, and a petition calling on the Australian Government to create a national strategy to end child and youth homelessness and increase support for youth homelessness support services. The response from the community was incredible. We filled pages of signatures and collected generous donations to help support young people experiencing homelessness.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by, signed the petition, asked questions, or donated.
