twestival local - Tweet.Meet.Give. - March 24, 2011

Ross Kyrwood, Mission Australia State Director WA, sent us a mail to thank everyone who joined Perth Twestival in the last weeks and gave us details about the service we have fundraised for. Here are his words for us: 

Thank you again for organising the Perth Twestival and choosing Mission Australia as the charity. 

YASS is a great service helping young people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. Your support will help this program continue to help young people transform their lives.

Please pass on my thanks and this information to your fellow tweeters

Thanks again.

More details about YASS are here:

Youth Accommodation Support Service

The Youth Accommodation Support Service (YASS) program aims to provide homeless young people, or those at risk of becoming homeless, accommodation in a safe environment. 

It offers three levels of housing to people aged 15 to 25:

·       A 24 hour crisis house which has six beds, where young people can access counselling and support services.

·       Ten on-site units for young people who are not ready or skilled enough to cope with the pressures of independent living.

·       The Transitional Housing Program, which helps young people make the transition to independent living and continues to provide information and assistance with employment, education, life skills, drug and alcohol issues, finances and family relationships.  

The staff work with young people in various ways to assist them in planning for their future, some examples being:

·       formulating a plan of action for their future

·       assisting to reunite them with their parents where appropriate

·       providing information and assistance on issues such as employment, education,  substance misuse and family relationships

·       Young Parents’ program

·       The Youth Financial Counsellor works closely with each young person in developing financial solutions, for example; budgeting advice, goal setting and taxation information

Crisis Accommodation
YASS provides safe and secure crisis accommodation to young people aged 15 to 18 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness for up to 12 weeks (although longer stays can be negotiated). In addition to offering stable accommodation, it  provides young people with independent living skills, emotional support and informal counselling as required. YASS also liaises with other agencies to support young people into long-term accommodation.

Young Parents’ Program
This program provides safe, secure, affordable medium-term accommodation to assist disadvantaged young people aged 16 to 25 - some of whom are young parents with children - to transition into independent living.

Financial Counsellor

YASS provides a free financial counselling service to young people aged 15 to 25. Primarily offered to people already benefiting from Mission Australia’s services, but also the wider community, this service assists budgeting and debts appeals and provides financial information, including referrals to legal representation if required. Assistance is also given to help clients acquire financial support from agencies such as Centrelink.

 Hi Perth tweeps

Well, less than a week to go until the #PerthTwestival kicks off, so now is the time to make sure you’ve RSVPd for the event on 24 March by clicking the Get Tickets Button and start raising some much needed dollars to help support our nominated charity, Mission Australia and its services for homeless youth.

Some of us are raising money by passing the hat around our workplaces and then clicking Donate button to submit our donations, or people can simply click and make an individual donation.

We look forward to seeing you all at The Boulevard Hotel in Floreat for great drinks and tasty nibbles next week!

Perth Twestival Team