Connecting You – Homelessness Youth 12-15

As a HYAP Family Carer, you will be expected to provide a safe and nurturing home environment for young people aged 12-15 years who are experiencing homelessness. Young people will be placed with you by our HYAP Case Managers for up to 28 days while they work with the young person and their family and extended family to heal ruptured family relationships and explore opportunities for long term, safe, supported accommodation. 

In providing a home-like environment some of the daily tasks will include shopping for groceries, cooking nutritious meals, assisting young people with their day-to-day activities, and supporting the well-being of the young people. 

To be successful in this role you will have the resilience, maturity, emotional intelligence and the mentoring skills to provide a safe, stable and supportive home environment. 

Family Carers must demonstrate an understanding of the importance of the origins, culture and past experience of the young person and support the ongoing contact and family restoration work of the HYAP Case Manager. 

Our service is committed to supporting young people’s connection to kinship and culture and is very keen to recruit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Carers. 

HYAP Family Carers will complete an assessment process that involves a number of probity checks, participating in several interviews, and attending three days of mandatory carer training. Carers will also receive specialised training in adolescent development, the impact of trauma, and therapeutic behaviour support. 

The Family Carer role attracts: 

• A retainer to ensure that they are available exclusively to support the HYAP program.  This will be supplemented with a nightly accommodation placement allowance consistent with OOHC intensive foster care rates. 

• Specialised training, including how to support young people affected by trauma. 
• Intensive support from Pathfinders therapeutic specialists, and Social Futures case managers. 

HYAP Family Carers will focus on working collaboratively with Social Futures case managers to support family restoration and to meet the young people’s needs. Some young people will need more support than others. For this reason, the role will suit people who don’t have dependent children at home. If you have adult children at home this can be considered and they need the same probity checks as you. 

Yes, you need to have Australian citizenship or permanent residency. 

Yes, you need a current NSW drivers licence. 

Carers can be part of a couple, single, studying, retired or working. However one carer must be able to provide full-time care to the young people in the home. 

A pet can be a great therapeutic companion for young people experiencing trauma and distress, but of course it depends on the nature, breed and temperament of the pet and the individual needs of the young people We will discuss this with you and come to an agreement about what is in the best interests of the young people. 

Family Carers should have adequate, safe accommodation for a young person.  This does not mean that applicants should necessarily own their own home. A young person needs to have their own bedroom. 

HYAP Family Carers are expected to provide the young people with a nurturing, supportive stable home environment and work collaboratively with Pathfinders and Social Futures staff to meet the needs of the young people. Carers receive specialised training, including how to support young people experiencing trauma and separation from family, and support from Pathfinder’s therapeutic specialists, and Social Future’s staff. Our aim is to support young people to return home to their families as quickly as possible – as long as it is safe to do so. Social Futures staff will do this by working intensively with the young person, their parents and their extended family. The HYAP Family Carer is not expected to ‘parent’ the young people – they already have parents – but they do need to provide them with a loving, nurturing, supportive home. 

For more info or to apply to become a HYAP Family Carer call 6620 1800 or email hyap@social futures.org.au