Assess The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Brisbane Youth Services

Working with youth is an essential factor to help them develop the basic essential skills and traits that are needed to begin and successfully live throughout adulthood. They are also a means of crime prevention. In order to evaluate how agencies provide assistance to youth and crime prevention strategies whilst working with youth, this paper will be focusing on the Brisbane Youth Service (BYS). A brief description of the agencies role, philosophy upon which the organisation bases its practices will be given. The paper will then continue to explain the relationship BYS has with crime prevention and the ways in which it practices these. Strengths and weaknesses of the BYS organisation will also be discussed, as well as research into youth crime statistics and prior research studies of youth crime. This will assist in explaining why the organisations role is essential within society and whether any improvements are needed to continue to provide positive support for youth.

BYS was founded in 1977 and since then they have provided assistance to youth that are

between the ages of 1 and 25 whom are homeless and in need of their assistance or at risk of becoming homeless. In 2011 another agency was merged with BYS in Stones Corner, Brisbane, to accomodate young women and their children. More recently, in 2015 BYS once again merged their services with another agency in Carina to enable the expansion of houses able to be provided to young people and young families. The philosophy that BYS employees and volunteers work by is to provide “new futures for young people” and their purposes are to extend support to young people who are homeless and young individuals or young families at-risk of becoming homeless. Smaller services the BYS provides are initiatives such as a medical centre with all the youths needs covered for free, food vouchers and clothes for youth that need these essentials. Also, educational programs which each young people meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking and hygiene are also available. Although these programs and initiatives are fundamental in helping homeless or at risk of becoming homeless youth in personal development and crime prevention, the larger services provided will be focused on (Brisbane Youth Service, 2015).

BYS has emergency and long term support services and programs that cover a vast amount of issues that young people can encounter. One of the major services they provide for homeless or at risk of becoming homeless youth between the ages of 16 and 25 is assisting them finding and maintaining accomodation. They provide assistance with furnishing the accomodation and providing general household items which the young individuals or young families will need (Brisbane Youth Service, 2015) . Study completed by Fielding and Forchuk (2013) highlights the problem with youth homelessness and high rates of arrests. The study was a secondary analysis of 186 homeless youths between the ages of 16 and 25. It was found that there was a high correlation between homelessness and arrests for crimes. The study concluded that youth who were homeless for a longer period of time had higher arrest rates for criminal behaviour. The highest arrest reason was because of theft or stolen property which was at 52 percent. Breach of probation was the second highest arrest reason at 43 percent and arrest due to assaults were the third with 24 percent. Another study completed by Schwartz et al. (2008) also showed that homeless youth were more prone to criminal behaviour than youth who were not homeless. The study was completed by approaching youths that were at a location where laundry and food services were provided throughout the day by walk-in basis in California. Of the 42 participants interviewed 98 percent reported that they have had police contact in the past since becoming homeless and 40 percent of these were frequent and 74 percent reported that they have had been previously incarcerated in a Juvenile Detention Centre due to criminal behaviour. Interviewing the youth showed that 73 percent of the participants committed theft from another individual to survive on the streets.

The analysation of these two studies show that homelessness impacts largely on youth crime levels. These studies show that young people who are homelessness are more likely to engage in criminal behaviour, be arrested and come into contact with police more than young people who are not homeless. In 2015, BYS provided assistance for accomodation and short term homing options for 623 young people (Brisbane Youth Service, 2015). By providing accomodation to young people, BYS is actively participating in crime prevention and assisting young people from committing or recommitting crimes due to homelessness. BYS home and accomodation services prevents criminal behaviour for at risk of homelessness also.

Another larger service that BYS provides for young people is professional Counselling sessions that focus on dealing with their physical and mental health needs, as well as substance abuse issues (Brisbane Youth Service, 2015) . A study conducted by Bannon et al. (2012) focused in youth substance abuse and homelessness. The researchers conducted surveys with 198 participants aged 11-14 within urban family homeless centres. It was found that 143 participants had no substance use history whilst 35 had one and 20 participants had two or more substance use incidents. It was found that the older homeless youths were more prone to substance use. The study conducted by Klee and Reid in (1998) focused on older youth aged between 14 and 25 and found that alcohol consumption and drug use was consumed at highly levels amongst the homeless youth. Of the 200 young people interviewed, 96 percent stated that they smoke cannabis, 39 percent stated that daily use. Alcohol was the second most used substance with 87 percent consuming alcohol. Also, researchers found that out of the 200 youths interviewed, 87 percent were consuming one or more types of illicit drugs.

These two case studies support that drug use and homelessness can be corroborated. BYS provided 253 young people in the financial years of 2014-2015 wit drug programs and interventions. BYS tailored their interventions to suit each substance use type and the young person’s focus as well as their level of willingness to change (Brisbane Youth Service, 2015) . By providing programs and services which help substance abuse for young people who turn to BYS for help is another instance of how BYS is involved with crime prevention for young people because studies have also found that substance abuse has a negative impact on youths mental development and that it causes mental health issues in later life.

The final larger service that the BYS provides for youths that will be discussed is the Centre for Young Families which is located in Stones Corner. Some services that BYS provides under this centre is individual and group work for young parents between the ages of 12 and 25 in housing assistance, child development and forming a natural attachment and bond with the child (Brisbane Youth Service, 2015) . A study conducted by Wong (2012) looked at statistical data on youth crimes and census data in order to determine whether family instability and mobility had any impact on offending rates. The participants ages were between 12 and 17 years of age and where charged in the governments court system. It was found that out of all coefficients, mobility and dysfunctional family life had the biggest impact on youth offence rates. Another older study that corroborates that mobility and dysfunctional family structure impacts on youth crimes was the study completed by Sampson and Groves in 1989. Sampson and Groves (1989) conducted a study which analysed the British Crime Survey to determine how community structure impacts on crime. This study also found what Wong (2012) study found and It was found that personal violence was one of the highest offences by youths who have had a history of unstable family life with. Th study found that 80 percent of offences occurred by youth that have reported an unstable or dysfunctional family life or who are unsupervised by adults.

With the analysation of these two case studies, it is evident that the Centre for young Families plays a large role in crime prevention. The Centre for Young Families assisted 102 young families in the financial years of 2014-15. Of these 102 families; 78 were children (Brisbane Youth Service, 2015) . By providing this service the BYS is helping towards the formation of functional, healthy families. Services such as these play an essential role in crime prevention methods because research shows that healthy and functional families reduce the risk of youth delinquents and youths that commit serious offences.

As with any services provident by agencies, there are certain positives and negatives that can be identified. BYS from the research conducted is a service that has a strong focus on homeless youths and at risk of homelessness youth which and a positive is the large amount of services that they provide in order to address this issue. There are programs and initiatives within services that go into detail on what a young individual needs to get their life back on track. This is one of the biggest positives that was found as it shows that the organisation is truely wanting to make a difference and help get young individuals living every aspect of their life positively and functionally. A perfect example of this would be the fact that BYS does not only provide assistance for youths that need accomodation, but also in providing furnishings within the household. They also have programs that can teach youths on how to maintain tenancy and how to keep their residence clean and presentable. Another positive that was found was the evidence that the organisation is expanding as more work is needed; This is evident when looking at the organisations services timeline. BYS has been operating since 1977, in 2011 BYS and Othila young women’s housing and support service merged to become the Centre for Young Women. Another example is in 2015 when once again the Youth emergency services merged with BYS. This allowed for the expansion of housing options for young individuals and young families.

Negatives that were found for BYS were small but still relevant. One negative was that the locations of these services were mostly based closed to the CBD. With such a strong service made available for homeless and at risk youths, the organisation could expand into outer suburbs in order to help more youths. For example, the Medical centre is located in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. A few smaller clinics could be built further away from the city to reduce the stress for youths and youth families having to travel far to receive medical attention. Another negative is that along with females, there is also a need for male focused services to be provided for homeless or at risk male youths. At the present moment, only the centre for youth females is available with focused programs to help female related issues. A male service would positively impact male homeless youth as they too incur strains and problems that female homeless youth might not. The last negative that will be mentioned is the lack of fundraising and awareness campaigns this organisation partakes in. By increasing fundraising events, the organisation could potentially increase awareness and increase funds that come in to the programs available. This could even out the lack of government funding that such organisations receive.

In conclusion, it is evident that Brisbane Youth Service is an organisation that is highly dedicated in providing assistance to youths that are homeless or at his of becoming homeless in order to secure a better future to them.

They have focused programs ad initiates that target areas which help youths become better adept at living within society and are gradually expanding their services. With these strong strengths of the organisation there are also weaknesses that need to be addressed in order for the organisation to strengthen their bonds with youths that need assistance. Along with services which help youth build towards a positive future, their programs and initiatives also assist in crime prevention. This is evident with providing substance abuse programs, accomodation and family building, bonding and attachment services as research has shown that these factors play a vital role in preventing youth

crime.