Youth Section: St John's Youth Services

Can you please share this with the workers? Maybe it can be known as the Special Chisholm Poem, however I am sure many people have written poems for Chisholm!

And I mean every word! Thank you for getting me through the good and the bad times. I could not have done it without you!

Hi my name is Dave Lawrence. I am 21 years old, and a client of St John’s Youth Services – Burdekin Place. I volunteer my time with St John’s Ambulance, the National Depression Initiative – Beyond Blue and Reach-Out. I have lived in private rental, boarding houses and living with family before my time at Burdekin Place. Those accommodation placements had not been successful due to various issues including mental health, financial issues, family breakdown and of course my choices that I have made in the past. The impacts of being homeless are more than not having somewhere to sleep. Issues including and not limited to financial hardship, mental health, unable to obtain secure employment and the feeling some of my family are ashamed of me or not happy with the choices I have made or have the understanding that my parent’s have. My close family (mum, dad, and grandma) have been mainly supportive of what ever I do, SYC, Trace-A-Place have all been fantastic in supporting me in not just finding accommodation but financial support, emotional support and referrals to other given agencies who have also helped me. These are Skills Training and Resources, TKA Allowance and Side-Street Counselling. My current goals for accommodation are to have my own private rental unit, or Housing SA unit so that once I have secure accommodation, I hope to be able to work on the other issues that I have. In May I am going to Marden Senior College to study “Acers 10”. A year 10 equivalent course full time. Maybe in the long term I would like to look at some paid work and be self sufficient instead of being reliant on the Disability Support Pension. I hope that you continue to support the fantastic work of St John’s Youth Services in the future.

My family moved away, I had no-one here (in Adelaide) i.e. family and friends. I had no family love with one parent. Situations created fights with mother’s boyfriend. Homeless for 18 months since my Nan moved to NSW. I had lived with her since I was 14 years old. Since then I have been couch surfing for 18 months, did not actually sleep rough (on streets). The impacts of homelessness affected me emotionally, with my health, mental health, education and income all affected. I got involved in illegal activities and have a history of conflict and abuse. As a result of being homeless, drug and alcohol use increased to compensate for anxiety, anger and depression, and this lead to involvement with criminal system to pay for living expenses.

My Nan in NSW provided me with some financial support when required. I have been linked in with Centrelink who provided details about Crisis Care. Crisis Care referred me to Burdekin Place. Burdekin Place have helped me in referring me to other accommodation services and supporting agencies.

My primary accommodation goal is to access the Private Rental Market. Housing SA have approved bond and rent assistance. Due to me not having a history of private rental and no references, I am finding it very difficult to access private rental. I am also having difficulty accessing boarding house accommodation due to high number of tourist events in Adelaide at present. I want to link in with a counsellor to address mental health issues, and to pursue a psychiatric assessment from a GP. I believe my mental health is attributing to my current circumstance – Homelessness!

Hi, my name is Nadia and I am an eighteen year old, single girl. I have been coming to Chisholm for a while now. I first came to Chisholm Place after leaving a friend’s house, because I was getting involved in drugs. I have since then had my own place, but it kept getting broken in to so I ended up back here. I also was heavily involved in drugs again and didn’t look for any accommodation and therefore kept coming back to Chisholm. I soon learnt that if I gave my accommodation a shot, that I would have the help and support of the workers too. The workers have helped me find accommodation by telling me which places are suitable for me, and which are not. My most enjoyable time here at Chisholm has just been hanging out with the workers, having a good laugh. I think my favourite Sunday Outing has been swimming. It was so good to see everyone getting involved and having fun.

Chisholm Place has had a couple of programs running while I have been there. One of the programs was on drugs and alcohol, and taught me a lot about standard drinks, and how much alcohol I have in one week. Chisholm Place also had a program called Equip. It was lots of fun and I learnt a lot. It was good that the workers got involved too. I have had a few friendships in Chisholm, but I have always found it hard to make friends. Chisholm Place has also helped me with Starter Kit shopping, which supplied me with everything that I needed to move into other accommodation, which I thought was very kind. I have also spent Christmas at Chisholm, and the workers were great. They made it feel like home, with pressies and a roast – it was great.

Chisholm Place has also helped me get involved with doctors, social workers, the housing trust and counselling. They have helped me a lot and have been a big part of my life, which is now very changed. The workers are great and very forgiving, giving everyone a second chance.

St John's Youth Services: Empowering homeless young people

When I came to Chisholm I had nothing but the bag on my back and yet now in leaving the service I have an abundance of stuff and even more to come. The reason it is like this is because of the staff’s love, support, generosity and encouragement I have managed to retrieve what was rightfully mine, sacrifice small things and receive what was given to me. I guess this is like what happened to me personally during my stay. I came here with nothing but hopelessness, despair, grief, sadness and loneliness and now I am leaving with joy, love, hope, will, encouragement, peace and lots of hugs. I remember an episode of The Simpson’s where a person’s telling Homer that in some cultures they use the same word to describe crisis and opportunity. A crisis is an opportunity to make choices we have either avoided, haven’t seen or been held from either good or bad. When I came to Chisholm I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make the right choice. In fact I pretty much wanted to curl up in the corner and die. Now, I have come out of my crisis and even though I still have many issues to face I am renewed and filled with a new sense of confidence. It can be hard to lose control over your life, god knows we have all felt it before, but it is far more powerful when after losing control you are given it back again. You have given me control over my life, you have given me hope, and you are my blessings.

My name is Luka and I have been living at the Lodging House for about two months. I like having fun with friends or with any body. My favourite hobbies are playing basketball, soccer and any other sports. I have just bought a new remote control toy car - it is called the Twister. Because the staff at Burdekin and St Johns love supporting young people and helping them out when they need help. When I came to Arkell House I had nothing but t-shirt and pants on me. The manager went clothes shopping for me. I also stayed at Burdekin. I loved when Kym and Dave took me to the Royal show and I had fun with them. I had never been to the Royal Show before and I had lots of fun. I went on rides that I have never been on in my life. The first ride was scary but it was fun, its call Hang Over, and all the rides were fun. They bought me the Terminator three, which had a sk8 board and I played one of the sideshow games and won $20 dollars! I guess am a lucky boy.

(Happily Luka is now with a family, 12 years is just too young to live independently!)

The staff at Chisholm helped me to find permanent accommodation and now I am moving to Carlow Place. Chisholm have a great client access room where they have clothes and shoes. They help to transport you to where you need to go. Chisholm help you make appointments. They really helped me a lot.

I would like to take this opportunity to write about the service and staff, how they are both taken very much for granted by some of the younger clients helped by St Johns services. Out of all the shelters I have stayed in, the accommodation itself is, I would say the nicest, cleanest, homiest and flexible. The staff continuously go out of their way to help us girls, taking us to appointments, encouraging us to explore all our accommodation plans, getting on our backs to go to appointments and follow them up, emotional support and pretty much anything we ask for help with, they are more than happy to oblige. They do all of this while ever so patiently having put up with some bad attitudes, uncleanliness around the house, tantrums and an overall great un-appreciation of what Chisholm House offers and does for them! So I would just like to say a few of us do appreciate the service and the staff. From those of us thank you St Johns.

The little time I have spent here at Burdekin (as well as the friends) will stick with me for the rest of my life. The guys here give us support, help, and most of all I suppose, love. The small three weeks here at Burdekin with the staff’s help is a miracle in progress. In three weeks or less they literally take you from nothing to nearly everything. I came to be here when my family finally collapsed and was left to fend (like many) for myself. I rang the SYC/Trace a Place hotline and they hooked me up to here. Now it is a never-ending push to get a house and sort myself out. The staff push and push, which can be annoying, but is all in good faith. Looking through newspapers and the web, going to appointments with the Housing Trust and places like Centacare and Port Youth. Arranging a bond, and attending the Rent Club at SYC where I learned all about my rights and the regulations of rental leases and the laws of renting. At the end we even got a certificate. I found share accommodation and applied and actually got it, but didn’t follow through with it because it wasn’t what I wanted. At Burdekin there are rooms with great privacy, Foxtel, Nintendo, table tennis (my favourite), friends, and guys just to help you with whatever you need. The food was always great, my favourite was chicken parmesan. You can come and go as you please within the curfew, I hope one day they will change it to at least 12:00. One thing I hated as well is that the staff have to wake you and get you up at 9:00, even if you don’t have any appointments. The staff offer never ending help and support, and the friends are people that are going through exactly or close to what you are so you can share your problems. The best thing about Burdekin is the support of the staff and the friends I have made here.

“On a limb – that is where the fruit is” For me, that saying has much meaning in my student placement at Burdekin Place. I cannot remember who said it but it was a wise person indeed. Before I had even begun at Burdekin, I had been told by the person who organised the placement that if I could handle this I could handle anything. That was a very daunting thing to tell a 19 year old girl who, fresh out of high school, decided to study Social Work instead of choosing some other professions that may not be people based. I now know why I was told this and think it prepared me well for things I was going to seat Burdekin. I had somewhat of a choice if I wanted to undertake my placement at St John’s and while I thought about my decision after I had first been to Admin, I thought of my favourite quote. Why not? I asked myself. I know now that to receive true rewards, there is nothing more satisfying than pushing yourself one step further and knowing that you did not work in vain for the rewards.

Whilst being on my placement, I have heard some horror stories about other placements at other agencies. I could not believe some of the things being told and I could not relate at all. The managers at Burdekin Place have supported me to no end. I have been encouraged, supported and assisted every step of the way. I am able to go at my own pace but at the same time encouraged that I could always do more. In some ways I believe that my quote ties in with the support that they have given me. For that I am eternally grateful. I have learnt invaluable lessons from this placement that cannot be articulated in written or spoken word. Working with such supportive managers and a talented team of workers means reaching heights I never knew existed.

Every day at Burdekin is not typical – nor is there ever a dull moment. I do not wish to describe my tasks at Burdekin but rather discuss an issue that I believe many young students may experience in a setting such as Burdekin or Chisholm. Being the same age as a number of clients, means having an appreciation of some issues they may be experiencing. If I wanted to tell a new student starting a placement at Burdekin any piece of advice, I would say to set boundaries. This was a valuable piece of advice that greatly impacted on my placement. To be able to set boundaries in one’s own mind and then to understand why these boundaries are essential, means to serve the clients best interests. To be able, to set boundaries, means to have an understanding of the importance of being professional.

Stories from Young People - How St John's Youth Services is helping: