Sharing Good Practice
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As a national initiative, NAYSS has a particular focus on sharing good practice. FaHCSIA have funded a Lead Provider (CMYI) to encourage collaboration between services across Australia; building resources on a national level.
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NAYSS providers are encouraged to work collaboratively on developing and evaluating good practice – a key aspect of employing an action research approach to service delivery.
Mechanisms for achieving collaboration between NAYSS providers include:
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Mentoring and Peer Support
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A Mentoring Pilot: Colony 47 and CMYI in Victoria
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On gaining funding to provide a specialist refugee JPET service, Colony 47 approached CMYI seeking to organise a visit by their staff to CMYI with a view to this being a mentoring experience. CMYI agreed to the visit and set out to document, using action research, the experience for all staff involved.
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 Download PDF of case study paper (15Kb)
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Capacity Building in the Local Service Sector in Tasmania
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The NAYSS provider in Hobart, Tasmania has become a key point of reference for the mainstream service sector in relation to issues of settlement, newly arrived young people and families, and cross-cultural work in general.
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Download PDF of case study paper (6Kb)
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Providing Advice and Support to Generalist Yth Services in the ACT
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In the ACT the NAYSS provider has been called on to provide advice and support to a number of generalist youth services and schools around the issue of racism among young people.
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Download PDF of case study paper (6Kb)
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Collaborative Networking in QLD
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With two NAYSS providers funded through phase 1 and a further provider funded through phase 2 in the Brisbane and nearby Toowoomba regions in QLD the opportunity for collaboration was evident. These three providers now meet regularly every three to four months.
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Download PDF of case study paper (6Kb)
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Case Studies
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Colony 47 (TAS) - June 2006
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On 29-30 June 2006, the Tasmanian Colony 47 NAYSS team participated in the NAYSS National Forum in Melbourne. As part of the Forum program, we were asked to prepare a 5-8 minute presentation on our service. The team decided we wanted to explore and reveal some of the underlying foundations of our service; the values that inform our common practice models and the tensions we are grappling with when working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
This paper seeks to document this session and will outline some of our common practice frameworks and the values which underpin them and then explore some of the tensions we have faced working cross-culturally, using examples of female gender identity.
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Download PDF of Colony 47 paper - "We don't see things the way they are, we see things the way WE are" (150Kb)
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Multilink Youth Services (QLD) - February 2006
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NAYSS Multilink is very happy to report a very busy and energetic start to the year as I’m sure the other services have experienced. We have been supporting a number of young people and their families around:
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- Intergenerational conflict leading to homelessness;
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- Reuniting families after homelessness;
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- Education support including accessing and navigating school systems, advocacy, and transitional support between primary and high schools;
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- Mental health and Torture Trauma;
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- Psycho education around communication, hygiene and sexual health; and
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- Financial assistance towards school enrolments such as uniforms and textbook resources.
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Our focus has recently turned to a large camp we’re organising in partnership with another youth service. It will take place in April and be a working together leadership camp for newly arrived African students aged 12-23. It will be held on Stradbroke Island and should be very challenging, educational and of course enjoyable.
We have also been running Care Classes at schools with large numbers of newly arrived youth and the Rainbow program in primary schools. The Rainbow program has an early intervention focus and we are finding that our age group boundary often incorporates children aged 8-12. This age group has also been strongly represented within the family support programs we have been providing. Through brief conversations with other NAYSS and refugee/migrant services this appears to be a shared experience.
Also, being a newly arrived early intervention service, our inability to access TIS interpreters is making our work very difficult. Telephoning clients is very costly as interpreters are paid for a minimum of two hours at a time. Ideally, NAYSS services should have access to TIS, as the biggest barrier with newly arrived clients is language. Something we need to make known to policy makers, as it is a key aspect of good practice.
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Mission Australia (Toowoomba) - February 2006
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It has been an exciting time since our NAYSS programme began just over 6 mths ago. Since then we have been developing community links and supporting young people to increase their social and community connection.
In January 2006 our service relocated to bigger and better premises and employed a new Male Youth and Family Worker. A lot of our time has been spent working in schools and assisting clients with practical living skills, for example cooking workshops. Many male Sudanese clients said they enjoyed cooking so much they are considering a career in hospitality! Queensland Health also came on board to help teach clients safe hygiene practices and how to read food labels. The Police have been great supporters of the program: attending schools with us, talking about road safety, and just hanging out with the young people.
The NAYSS programme recently organised a “Sudanese Youth Day” where the young people learned how to: shoot hoops with a professional basketballer, make the right moves with latin and FUNK dance, and get their hands dirty with Indigeous Art workshops. In fact, a gallery has even offered to sell their work!
We have lots of activites planned for the next few months: from a welcome back party for 2006 to a career expo. We are also looking into school based traineeships & apprenticeships.
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