Brisbane Youth Service have been supporting homeless and vulnerable young people since 1977 and have seen firsthand, the links between domestic and family violence and homelessness.
In 2020-21, 72% of young people who presented to Brisbane Youth Service experienced family violence, 45% experienced relationship violence, and 23% acknowledged that they themselves used violent or threatening behaviours*.
On this Youth Homelessness Matters Day, Brisbane Youth Service CEO Annemaree Callander is announcing an innovative program to break the cycle of violence. K.I.N.D works with young people who have experienced family violence and are now using violence in their relationships.
“K.I.N.D. which stands for Kinship, Improving relationships, No violence and Developing skills, works with young people, partners and family members to deal with the effects of violence in their lives,” said Ms Callander.
“K.I.N.D. helps young people find new ways to address their problems and manage anger to maintain healthy, safe, and respectful relationships and break the ongoing cycle of violence.”
Brisbane Youth Service is working in partnership with The Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs, and Children’s Health Queensland’s Forensic Child and Youth Mental Health Service (CYMHS) to deliver this new early intervention program.
Brisbane Youth Service’s Young Women and Young Families Program Manager Lou Baker stresses the importance of early intervention.
“In order to break the cycle of inter-generational domestic and family violence, it is crucial that young people using violence are provided with appropriate, specialised supports”
“I am continually surprised by young people’s willingness and readiness to attend each week. For example, we had a young man last week who was in trouble for not attending detention, but he remembered to come to K.I.N.D. straight after school.
“We also recently had one young person who just came out of custody and called up as soon as he came out saying, ‘Right, let’s get back into K.I.N.D. again’,” said Ms. Baker.
The K.I.N.D. trial, developed by South Australia’s Youth Justice Department, includes nine modules for the young person, six modules for the young person’s partner or family, and three modules attended jointly.
Youth Justice service centres will refer clients to the skills-based program and Forensic CYMHS clinicians and Brisbane Youth Service will deliver the program which takes between three and six months to complete.
*Brisbane Youth Service – % of all young people who exited support in 2020-21
For more information, visit https://brisyouth.org/
Listen to the full interview with 96five’s Steff Willis in the player above.
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