About St John's Youth Services

St John’s Youth Services is a community based organisation located in the city of Adelaide, South Australia.

We specialise in providing services and support to disadvantaged and homeless young people and children.

History:

St. John’s was incorporated as an association in 1981 by the parishioners of St John’s Anglican Church.

By 1987, St John’s operated a fully supported emergency night shelter open from 4pm to 10am for young men. In 1993St John’s won funding to provide emergency accommodation services for young people aged 12 - 25 in the city, and has continued to be the only provider of these types of services ever since.  These services are provided through two residential facilities located in the city of Adelaide. Each has a professional team of workers rostered over 24 hours to provide care and Case Management support to homeless young men, and young women, including young women with dependent children. 

In 1999 St Johns opened the first specialist lodging house for newly arrived young people without family support for homeless young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

In 2006 St John’s was successful in gaining funds to establish a specialised Child Support Service in our young women's service to provide intensive case plan support to homeless young mothers and their dependent children – mostly babies and toddlers - at their time of crisis while they are resident in the emergency accommodation service.

In 2008 As a provider of a range of accommodation and support services to homeless young people St John’s was concerned that the current systems too often failed to overcome the complex array of barriers homeless young people face in their quest to break out of the cycle of homelessness. Homeless young people need a home, but they also need the support and guidance of adults who care to develop the stability and skills they need to live independently, and the opportunity to return to education or access work. There are many good services for young people, but they too often lack the capacity to provide a holistic response that captures the young person’s aspirations – and both supports and expects them to achieve their goals. Foyers meet these needs. St John’s Youth Services recognised that although it would be great to establish a foyer themselves, it was a far more exciting prospect to support the development of a nationwide foyer movement in Australia. To achieve this end St John’s established the Foyer Foundation.

In the same year St John’s also established Next Step with the support of the Morialta Trust, The Coopers Foundation and St Peters College. Next Step is an innovative program designed to take advantage of the unique relationship we have with young people who use our emergency services and to provide ongoing assistance to young people as they leave the services. The program is based on a contract between the young person and Next Step, where each has committed to participate. The program aims to prevent breakdown of their accommodation and return to the emergency services system. It is an initiative that provides a genuine opportunity to break the cycle of homelessness through targeted support and training, and assistance in securing sustainable life opportunities.

In 2009 St Johns achieved quality assurance re-accreditation, and after a lengthy application process was appointed the status of Preferred Service Provider by the Department of Families and Communities. 

In 2010 St John’s was appointed to provide the first service based on the foyer model in South Australia. Located in Port Adelaide the Ladder St Vincent Street program will open in January 2011. Ladder will provide apartment based accommodation to 23 homeless young people who wish to re-engage with education, or seek training and employment opportunities. Specialsed services and programs will be provided by our service partners , mentoring from the AFL Players Ladder program, tenancy management by Housing SA, and funding via the Department for Families and Communities.

Each year over 1,000 referrals are received by St John’s Youth Services. The organisation has accommodated over 7,500 individual young people, and almost 1,000 small dependent children. Some of these young people stayed in the services only once, but over half return within three months, and there are many who face such overwhelming barriers that the services provided by St John’s become their de-facto family as they become trapped in the cycle of homelessness. Those facing the biggest challenges will return to the emergency services multiple times over several years.

Over the years St John’s has built a reputation as an organisation that continues to strive to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged young people in our community. Most of the young people who come to St Johns have no family support, and are excluded from opportunities most in our community take for granted – a home, an education and work. 

St John's Youth Services has been recognised for striving to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged young people in our community through the provision of emergency accommodation, child support services and the Next Step program by the UNESCO Clubs - Adelaide Chapter.

Our Next Step Program has won two awards:

• The Anglicare Australia Innovation Award for 2009
• The Australasian Housing Institute’s Award for Leading Housing Solution 2009