COMMUNITY & FAMILY
Youturn’s Community Services, are focused on creating safe, stable and supportive environments for individuals and families across the regions we serve.
Our Child Safety services provide tailored family support designed to strengthen relationships, build parenting capacity, and ensure children and young people have safe and nurturing environments in which to grow. As a Specialist Homelessness Service provider, Youturn also delivers wrap-around case management for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, helping them access and sustain long-term housing.
In addition, Youturn provides Financial Counselling and Resilience support, equipping people of all ages with strategies to manage money, reduce financial stress and connect with other supports. Through Federal Government funding, we also deliver Emergency Relief across the Noosa and Toowoomba regions, offering practical assistance such as food, bill payment vouchers for essentials and referrals. Complementing this, our Community Access program provides essential facilities including showers, laundry facilities, and a kitchenette, ensuring dignity and care for those in immediate need.
Creating pathways for change: *Jill’s story
*Jill’s story
Youturn’s Supported Independent Living (SIL) program is designed to give young people the stability and support they need to rebuild their lives. This year, we worked alongside *Jill, a young person facing extraordinary challenges. Jill had experienced significant substance addiction, a very public offence that led to community stigma, and ongoing abuse within her family.
When no other provider was willing to offer Jill a placement, the Department of Child Safety approached Youturn, recognising our creativity, strong stakeholder relationships, and belief that every young person deserves the opportunity to create change. Together with our General Manager, we carefully assessed the risks and established a trusted care team to provide safe, intensive support.
Early in her transition, Jill’s father moved into her property, introducing alcohol and violence into her environment. With the intervention of Police and the support of her care team, Jill gained the confidence to report the abuse. She acknowledged her need for rehabilitation and, with Youturn’s advocacy, secured a placement in a specialist facility.
Jill successfully completed rehabilitation and has since remained abstinent. She is now applying for work, meeting her Youth Justice conditions, and taking pride in maintaining her home and her wellbeing.
Her story reflects the resilience of young people when provided with nurture, trust and support, and the dedication of Youturn’s team to stand alongside them, especially when it is difficult. The outcomes achieved in the SIL program has led to expanded SIL placements in the Moreton Bay Region and approval for two pilot programs, Pre-SIL and Outreach, extending our impact even further.
*Name changed
Jill’s journey reminds us why we do what we do. Every young person deserves a chance to change their story, no matter their past. Seeing her regain confidence, stability, and hope has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
Youturn Community Services
Program coordinator
CHILD SAFETY
Our team support
- families to help them to maintain the family unit.
- children & young people (aged 0-18) who are at risk of harm and unable to safely remain in their parents’ care.
**A decrease should not be viewed negatively, as it reflects a deliberate shift toward dedicating more time to families, ensuring support is deeper, more meaningful, and focused on achieving sustainable outcomes.
HOMELESSNESS
Our team support
- individuals at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
- families looking to identify
long-term, affordable and
sustainable accommodation.
Highlights
In 2024–2025, Youturn strengthened its Community Services programs, ensuring stability and continued support for families and individuals. Service agreements were successfully renewed, securing the ongoing delivery of Child Safety and Homelessness programs across the regions we serve.
Building on the success of last year’s initiatives, Youturn expanded opportunities for connection and support through our weekly community dinners, regular BBQ breakfasts in Tewantin, and the “Food for Thought” BBQs in Toowoomba. These gatherings have grown in popularity and received highly positive feedback, offering not only nutritious meals but also valuable opportunities for community members to connect with each other and with essential services. By addressing immediate needs while fostering belonging and resilience, these initiatives highlight the heart of Youturn’s Community Services approach.
Other achievements
- In partnership with Noosa Council, Youturn was awarded the lease of Tait Duke Cottage, providing a functional and dedicated space to expand our community facilities. This new location will enable the delivery of our Noosa Family Support Program and strengthen our capacity to offer support services locally, ensuring families and children have greater access to safe, connected and meaningful assistance.
- We strengthened our team by recruiting a dedicated Domestic & Family Violence specialist, enabling us to provide more holistic, trauma-informed support for individuals and families experiencing or at risk of violence. This role enhances our capacity to deliver integrated care, ensuring clients receive the right support at the right time.
Challenges
- Securing private rental headleases for Temporary Supported Accommodation and Supported Independent Living properties has been a significant operational challenge. Limited availability, short-term lease cycles, and reluctance from some landlords to accept organisations as tenants have created uncertainty in sustaining these essential programs.
- Access to affordable housing is also affecting our staff in the communities we serve, particularly on the Sunshine Coast, where demand for rentals and home ownership is high and competitive, and properties are tenanted quickly.
- Increasing complexity of client needs, including experiences of domestic violence, mental health concerns, and substance use, requires more intensive and resource-demanding interventions, placing additional strain on staff capacity.
- Recruiting and retaining skilled professionals, especially in regional areas, continues to be challenging amidst strong sector-wide competition, resulting in higher caseloads for existing staff.
- Ongoing shortages of affordable, sustainable housing across our regions mean demand consistently outpaces available resources, leading to capacity pressures and longer wait times for support.
Future focus
“Piloting new programs to strengthen safety, stability and support”
In the year ahead, Youturn will build on the strength of our Community Services by piloting new programs designed to respond to emerging needs and strengthen family and youth support.
- Noosa Family Support pilot program: Delivered from Tait Duke Cottage, this program will provide case management and practical support to families with children under 18 who are experiencing vulnerability. The focus is on improving child safety and wellbeing, building family capacity, and linking families to local services and resources to help prevent crises before they escalate.
- Pre-Supported Independent Living (Pre-SIL) pilot: This short-term program for young people aged 15–17 prepares them to transition successfully into Supported Independent Living or other safe arrangements. It focuses on developing independent living skills, personalised goal setting, and coordinated planning with the Department of Child Safety and partner services.
- Residential Outreach pilot program: A flexible child safety initiative providing case management for young people in the State’s care who are not living in formal residential placements. Support is delivered in the young person’s chosen environment, helping them transition to safe, stable accommodation with wrap-around support.
Together, these pilots reflect Youturn’s commitment to innovation, early intervention and collaboration, charting new pathways to ensure children, young people and families can access the right support at the right time.
Outcomes
- Resilience: Client feedback across our Family Support programs demonstrated that 87% of people agree or strongly agree that if they face the same worries again, they’ll know what to do.
Funders: Child Safety: Department of Families, Seniors, Disabilities and Child Safety – Homelessnes: Department of Housing and Public Works – Emergency Relief: Department of Social Services
The story of *Ahmad
The story of *Ahmad
*Ahmad first immigrated to Australia from Iran in 2022, to begin a new life.
Determined to make his own way, Ahmad soon found employment. However, after more than a year of hard work, the factory he worked at unexpectedly closed its doors, leaving him without an income. No longer able to sustain his accommodation, Ahmad found himself facing homelessness in a foreign country.
Alone and afraid, and far away from many loved ones, Ahmad travelled to Toowoomba to be nearer his father who had immigrated 14 years earlier. Unable to be supported by his father due to his own housing situation, Ahmad was introduced to Youturn’s Gateway House.
With no Australian licence or means of transport, and a constant language barrier to navigate, there were many daily struggles for Ahmad. Despite understanding and speaking English very well, he found it hard to understand jokes and some discussions, often leading to miscommunication and making building relationships quite difficult.
The team were able to support Ahmad to gain employment cutting pumpkins, helping to ease his financial struggles. Through support to purchase an electric bike, Ahmad was able to make his way to and from work on his own – and he did, rain hail or shine.
Determined to further improve his English, with support from Youturn Ahmad began to attend TAFE, with the ultimate goal of going on to study IT, following in his father’s footsteps.
Forging strong relationships with everyone at Gateway House, Ahmad has a support system and lifelong friends. He can now not only understand jokes, but make them as well, providing the team with many laughs.
Despite having now transitioned into his own accommodation, Ahmad still visits the Gateway House team regularly to say hello, and for support, reaching out after hearing of bombing in Iran and being extremely concerned for his mother who still resided there. Now a permanent citizen, Ahmad has completed IT studies at TAFE and has hopes to return to Sydney.
*Name changed
*Ahmad is one young person whose grit and mettle left us in awe. He will forge a good life for himself in Australia.
Jo Lloyd, Coordinator,
Gateway House
MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING
