Finally, we want to voice our appreciation to the Board for their guidance and invaluable assistance, as well as congratulate and thank all those who make this organisation such a remarkable place to work. Your talent, commitment and passion has ensured that vulnerable young people have continued to receive vital support when they needed it most.
You are amazing!
BOARD CHAIR
CEO
In the 2020/21 reporting year, Youturn has revitalised our services to deliver some exceptional outcomes. Our Youturn team delivered 7250 occasions of support to young people and young families - a 10% increase from the previous year. Our StandBy team (who now fly under their own banner), also delivered a 16% increase in support to 2422 people across Australia.
Achieving this within the context of the pandemic and without additional resources is quite remarkable and our workforce have our admiration and gratitude for all their incredible work.
Due in part to rising support needs we have focussed on social and health service improvements to continue to achieve better outcomes for our community. This year, despite COVID, we have also been out and about and given focus to building and nurturing, relationships cross-industry and within our sector.
Teddy thinks he can help *Nathan and *Nick with their behavior and guide them to verbalise and demonstrate good behaviour.
We look forward to Teddy’s journey and how he can be used by our Residential Care Team as a form of redirection and a continual prompt with the boys, helping them adapt to the big changes they have had to deal with.
*names have been changed
After 2 ½ years, Noah moved to our Supported Independent Living (SILS) program and had his heart set on the Army Indigenous Development program within the Australian Defence Force.
Following six months where Noah showed sheer grit and determination to increase his physical fitness with the help and guidance of his SILS team, Noah successfully passed the multiple levels of assessments required for entry into the program.
Noah was presented with his official letter of enlistment in June this year to commence his development training in Wagga Wagga. He regularly talks to his Care Team and has photos of them on his wall. He is due to graduate Basic Training in November.
“You are like my family and looking at the photos will give me motivation to keep going.”
During her time in our program Bianca worked part time and then decided she was ready to study. Our Youturn team supported Bianca along the way and she soon began to rebuild relationships with her family, engaged in mental health support and worked hard to achieve her accommodation goals. After eight months with Youturn, Bianca has transitioned to move closer to family in Bundaberg. Now living in independent accommodation, Bianca has recently commenced a Teachers Aid qualification.
Bianca stays in touch with the team at Golden Beach to check in and let us know how she is getting on. Bianca celebrated her 17th birthday whilst in our program, and recently told us
“Spending a day out on a boat on the water with my housemates and Trev (worker) was so much fun. It’s been the best birthday I’ve ever had”.
“I did drugs and alcohol to make me feel better.”
He couch surfed for some time before self-referring to Youturn’s crisis accommodation program which provided Tom with safe accommodation, food, a bed, advice, and emotional support. In addition, our team mentored Tom to achieve his self-identified goals towards independent living, including getting his drivers license, obtaining a Mental Health Care Plan and referring Tom to headspace Toowoomba to help address his concerns in a clinical environment.
Now in transitional housing and soon to buy his first car, Tom has become a strong, independent, hardworking, and well-read young man who is thoughtful and carries himself with respect. He visits regularly and drops in for dinner to catch up with his former housemates and our Youturn team, including choosing to spend Christmas day with them all at Gateway House.
Young people identifying as LGBTQIA+ recently told us that the SHOUT group at headspace is one of the only spaces they feel safe to be themselves. At school they face an increase of bullying and family have disowned or disrespected them after coming out, young people tell us.
“At my old school, I was pushed into walls, called names, mis-gendered and dead-named by teachers”.
“The housing crisis in regional Queensland during the pandemic, has also had a profound impact on the mental health of young people, who report heightened anxiety about living arrangements, lockdowns forcing loss of work/shifts and the uncertainty around travel and seeing family members .
Despite their rising status, Tim and Sam realised how fortunate they are and committed to doing more and giving back to their local community.
As part of their Ambassador role, Sam and Tim got involved in our fundraising initiatives by sharing their time and talents and helped us deliver Christmas gifts, hampers and some Christmas cheer to families in need.
The Aitken brothers, came up with an ambitious initiative to support youth and local musicians by staging a live benefit concert that aims to help raise funds for Youturn’s Big Hearts for Tiny Homes campaign. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the concert has been postponed twice, but a new date has been announced for 9 April 2022. So stay tuned!
“We did our research and we loved that Youturn is a local, grassroots charity who are focused on supporting young people on the Sunshine Coast. They have a passionate team, who are really dedicated to making a difference to the vulnerable people in their care. As artists and musicians, we hope to use our time and talent to help raise Youturn’s profile and the work they are doing.”
Over the last year, shifts in both the internal and external environment has seen Youturn develop innovative and collaborative solutions to meet the needs of socially excluded young people in the community. Through our own resources as well as in partnership with government, private and community sectors we have delivered positive, life-changing programs addressing the big issues.
The event was made possible with the generous support of amazing corporate sponsors and community who raise $23,000 for the event!
(ATTENDEE)
The young people Youturn support in crisis accommodation have also struggled to transition easily to the private rental market with many unable to pay the market rent. Youturn’s fundraising initiative Big Hearts for Tiny Homes will deliver affordable living in small functional tiny homes for young people.
Beginning with two tiny homes in the Noosa Shire tenanted by Christmas 2021, Youturn’s pilot is being closely observed by other local governments, interested in their own place-based approach to the housing affordability issues.
We would particularly like to thank our major donors and contributors including Waves of Kindness, Buderim Foundation, Aussie Tiny Houses and Noosa Council who granted us the land to place the Tiny Homes.
Youturn recruits intrinsically motivated employees dedicated to finding the best outcome for the people in our care. Our team members make a real and sustainable difference in the communities in which we operate, and this is what drives us. Sharing wins and supporting one another on the journey is key.
Our recruitment processes aim to find the right people to fit with our culture, and above all we hire for attitude and train for skill.
Youturn invests in team members who embody our values to foster a collaborative culture of excellence. We encourage all staff to identify areas for development, and future career aspirations, so we can design individual learning and development plans for each employee.
Youturn offers a range of lifestyle, financial and wellbeing benefits, as well as having a reward and recognition program to celebrate staff who display and live our values.
(LAURA FOX)
Consequently, Youturn’s Child Safety team is proactive in developing organisational strategies to foster the wellbeing of our frontline child protection workforce to help them navigate stressors and prioritise their wellbeing.
Some examples include, participating in Equine Therapy, an activity that they often make referrals to. This gave them all a greater understanding of the benefits of Equine Therapy in reducing anxiety and building communication skills.
Some of our teams, took a much-needed break to participate in a fun, team building activity at the Big Kart track, which was a great opportunity to bond and refresh.
To coincide with RUOK? Day, our leadership team introduced “Self-Care September”, where the services of a massage and reiki therapist was engaged to offer weekly sessions to those who were interested.
• With the support of Llew O’Brien, Federal Member for Wide Bay, an initiative to upgrade headspace Gympie to a fully funded Centre was approved by the PHN with headspace Gympie awarded funding of $1.3m per annum.
• headspace Toowoomba secured additional funding of $900K over 4 years from West Moreton Darling Downs PHN to resource services, employ additional mental health clinicians and reduce wait times to meet increasing needs.
• headspace Caboolture was successful in the application for “Demand Management Funding” with Brisbane North PHN committing an additional $540K over 3 years.
• headspace Caboolture has also become part of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Program which integrates employment and vocational support with clinical mental health and non-vocational support with funding equating to $845K over 4 years.
The Program means we offer exclusivity in contractor work where a supplier meets the professionalism, quality standards and timelines needed, together with a shared motivation to contribute in some small way to our social purpose.
Horse & Water Creative (H&W) led the way in our preferred partners journey being first to regularly gift back a little time, talent and treasure, to help us deliver our social purpose. Horse & Water are Youturn’s first-choice marketing team.
Following H&W’s lead, our printers (Express Print & Mail), photographer (Uwe, Photo Republic) and fleet provider, (Toyota), joined Youturn as preferred provider and partners.
Youturn are proud to do business with our chosen suppliers and where we can support one another’s core business, we are happy to discuss a preferred partnership arrangement.
Youturn welcomes this opportunity as it provides the organisation with a clear and consistent framework for planning, operating, and improving our Child Safety services. In addition, it promotes confidence to our clients that we provide a quality and reliable service.
In November 2020, Youturn underwent a full assessment of the organisation’s systems and processes and received confirmation of our re-certification for the period 2021 to 2023.
A mid-term assessment is scheduled for May 2022, which will ensure that Youturn is on track and continues to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements, underpinned by relevant internal policies and procedures.
Youturn’s risk management plan is based on:
• providing the workforce with clear information, direction and guidelines to minimise transmission including regular video / email updates from the CEO
• installing signage and demarcating spaces to enforce restriction of access and physical distancing and number of people per allowed per office / meeting room
• introducing a sign-in register for the workforce and clients and offering telehealth consults to clients;
Youturn also provided:
• branded hand sanitiser and facial masks
• regularly cleaned and disinfected adn deep clean of public amenities
• a Coronavirus risk register for the workforce and clients
• where possible, online Team and Skype meetings were conducted
• facilitated and supported working from home arrangements for our workforce
In addition, Youturn continued to support children and young people in our care and have worked closely with Department of Children, Youth, Justice and Multicultural Affairs (DCY/JMA) and adjust staff rosters to ensure workers were not mixing between households.
This investment of two new two-bedroom townhouses, will provide much needed transitional accommodation in this region to support youth who are transitioning crisis housing onto independent living.
Youturn worked closely with the Toowoomba Regional Council and other planning partners to finalise plans and construction will commence shortly.
Youturn has also expanded our community support by now offering laundry facilities, delivering more Emergency Relief from our Hume Street centre, as well as participating in regular community engagement activities.
Local Legends with BIG Hearts!
White’s IGA supermarkets on the Sunshine Coast have been an enthusiastic and passionate partner and supporter of Youturn this last year. As a preferred supplier of grocery vouchers for our Emergency Relief and Homelessness programs, the IGA team participated in our Big Hearts for Tiny Homes fundraising campaign by running an instore promotion across their five stores. Sporting wild hair and Youturn T-shirts, the staff helped raise awareness for Youturn, as well as funds for our Tiny Homes, and promoted our upcoming Youturn It Up live concert!
Tewantin become Homelessness Heroes
Tewantin Noosa Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank came on board as a partner of Youturn where every loan applied for at the Noosa Community Bank, where Youturn was mentioned, a percentage would be donated back to Youturn.
For World Homelessness Day, Bendigo Bank was instrumental in hosting Youturn for a “Homelessness Hero Day”, where the village of Tewantin all came together, dressed up as super heroes, to raise awareness for this important cause and provided an opportunity for our local communities to get involved and help fundraise for Youturn. Zabé Espresso Bar, Sandy Bolton MP, Noosa Office Choice, Richies bakery, and Tewantin State School and helped make this an amazing event.
A charity for more than 30 years, the organisation had demonstrated value for money impact as a preferred provider of government funded social services, however, we wanted to do more.
Social isolation, a rental crisis, job uncertainty, personal and family challenges during the 2020-21 pandemic certainly meant growing social need across our community. It also brought some challenges for fundraisers with events postponed, with terms “Covid-impacted” and “pivot” the new normal.
This year we introduced ourselves to new markets to achieve Youturn’s mission and used philanthropy to support major goals: more transitional housing, upgraded facilities for service users, value-add projects, events and activities to complement core programs.
Thank you to the many other individuals, groups and businesses that have contributed, and trusted Youturn to use donated funds as planned to meet the needs of our communities.
We have enjoyed sharing our stories to help build an understanding on how donated funds are supporting youth beneficiaries.
role transitioning to Robert Owens (Youturn’s CFO). Katie Acheson was recruited to the Board late 2020, bringing with her a wealth of experience in child-youth social policy and development.
We thank our board for gifting their time and talent to Youturn, especially departing directors who have completed terms of more than 3-years to ensure good governance and stability. Continuous improvement at board level is key to effecting performance development at all levels across the organisation.
Youturn is looking forward to making additional appointments to our Board in the coming year.
Good governance at Youturn ensures daily operations contribute to the strategic direction set by the Board of Directors, while both regulatory and social responsibilities as a charity and company limited by guarantee are met.
To achieve this, Youturn has a skills-based board of Directors who voluntarily provide guidance, knowledge and expertise to our CEO and management.
This year our board had several role changes. Paula Holden accepted the role of Chair from Greg Livingstone, and Mitch Evans was appointed Deputy Chair. We also farewelled director Joyce Chorney and Company Secretary Glen Damro with the later
This last financial year, our Executive Team of six, was lead by CEO, Andrew Anderson who started with the organisation in May 2019 and was supported by an Executive Team of program service managers with extensive skills and deep experience in their respective fields. Not only are they subject matter experts, they are also incredibly passionate about the services and support they oversee.
During this period, Darce Foley’s titled changed to General Manager Community Services, combining our Homelessness and Child Safety focus areas. In addition, we welcomed Laura Fox as General Manager, People and Culture.
Sadly, in June 2021, Andrew Anderson resigned as CEO of Youturn and moved back to Sydney to pursue a new opportunity. We wish to acknowledge and thank Andrew for all his commitment and dedication over the past two years. Rob Owens our CFO was appointed acting CEO, whilst we recruited for the CEO position.
Following a rigorous and competitive selection process in which both external and internal candidates were assessed the Youturn Board of Directors announced that Dr Tanya Bell was appointed as the incoming CEO and would officially assume the position from 4 October 2021.
Our team members are passionate and dedicated to making a real and sustainable difference in the communities in which we operate. We offer flexible working arrangements, a collaborative culture, individualised training, development opportunities, and a range of lifestyle, financial and wellbeing benefits.
We recognise that there is much more to do to reach our five year targets but as this Annual Report is under preparation we are continuing to achieve key outcomes.
In the coming year, Youturn will continue to innovate and seek out new partnerships with organisations and individuals who share our passion for supporting vulnerable young people. We will review and drive initiatives that support local, state and federal government strategy and direction including the:
Housing and Homelessness Action Plan 2021-2025 and commitment to address housing supply and affordability
Our Way Strategy and Action Plan 2017-2037 and commitment to the best possible outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families
We are only at the start of realising our future potential as a key provider of services for vulnerable young people and our Impact Investment Strategy, under development, will play a vital role in guiding our future strategic direction.
– You are all LEGENDS!”
(head office)
T: 07 5442 4277
E: reception@youturn.org.au