The OPEN FAMILY MODEL of STREET OUTREACH WORK A model of assistance for hard-to- reach young people...

The OPEN FAMILY MODEL ofSTREET OUTREACH WORK

A model of assistance for hard-to-reach young people who are alienated and excluded from

society.

Open Family Australia Inc. 2000 2

CONTENTS

1. Background 3

2. Mission Statement 4

3. Target Group: Street Children 5-8

4. The Open Family Model of Streetwork 8-16

5. How is Streetwork Different to

Traditional Outreach Work 17-22

6. Streetworker Support 23-29

7. Contact Details 30


OPEN FAMILY’S MODEL: A Background

The seeds of the current model were planted in the late 1970s, when Open Family began working with homeless and drug-affected young people in Melbourne.

Open Family currently employs more than 20 full-time outreach workers in metropolitan Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and some areas of regional Victoria and NSW.

Our “streetworkers” are personally available to their targeted intensive clients on a 24-hour basis.

The model provides organisational challenges but is very effective in engaging and assisting young people who are typically resistant to mainstream services.


Open Family AustraliaMISSION STATEMENT

To improve the well being and self worth of alienated and excluded

street children, through unconditional support, whenever and wherever

necessary, with the view to reconnecting them with the

community.


TARGET GROUP:Street Children

Disadvantaged Children

Homeless Children

Street Children


Definition of “Street Children”

The World Health Organisation’s Street Children Project (1993) identified four groups of young people often subsumed under the definition of “street

children”:

• Children living on the streets, whose immediate concerns are survival and shelter

• Children who are detached from their families and living in temporary shelters, such as abandoned houses and other buildings, hostels / refuges / shelters, or moving about between friends

• Children who remain in contact with their family, but because of poverty, overcrowding, or sexual or physical abuse within the family, will spend some nights, or most day on the streets

• Children who are in institutional care, who have come from a situation of homelessness and are at risk of returning to a homeless existence


STREET CHILDREN:Salient Characteristics

Alienation and exclusion

Anti-social and self-destructive behaviour

Distrust of formalised services

Under-utilisation of available helping resources

Existence beyond boundaries of traditional welfare systems


STREET CHILDREN:Specific Needs in Service Utilisation

Significant Resource Persons

Individualised support

Out-of-hours availability

Non-coercive offer of assistance

Continuity in the child-worker relationship


Open Family’s Model of STREETWORK

Essentially…

STREETWORK involves a commitment to engage with

street children on their terms and in their environment.



Seeks to convey to the child a sense of availability that extends beyond physical presence and is unbounded by a time-

limited framework.

UNIQUE AVAILABILITY



Involves showing interest in and respecting the environments and subcultures street

children are immersed in.

RESPECT



Focuses on providing street children with the opportunity to develop and engage in a

stable and supportive relationship with another.

RELATIONSHIP



Entails developing trust and street credibility such that the child feels comfortable to seek the help of a

“significant other” in the form of the streetworker.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER



RESULTS-ORIENTED

The streetworker will do whatever is required to assist the child, without being

constrained by any particular model of intervention or an arbitrary menu of

options.

Flexibility, creativity and innovation are essential tools of trade.


Streetwork:COMPLEMENTING OTHER HELPING AGENCIES

1. Make connection with client

2. Assess client’s needs

3. Build trust (throughout cycle)

4. Provide support / referrals5. Provision of

services• accommodation

•healthcare•legal support

•education•employment

OPEN FAMILY

SERVICE PROVIDERS AND OPEN FAMILY

6. Long term planning and Management

7. Manage and observe stabalisation

•lifestyle / behavioural change•decreased service

dependence

8. Exit client



Workplace

Peer group

School

FamilyMedia

Welfare agencies

Businesses

Police

Comm- unity

groups

Govern- ment

Street Child

With the broad aim of reconnecting the child with his/her community, streetwork utilises and engages an extensive range of community stakeholders in interaction.

Cross-cutting ties built between different groups help build community resilience.

BUILDS COMMUNITY RESILIENCE


HOW IS STREETWORK DIFFERENT TO TRADITIONAL OUTREACH WORK?

RECIPROCITY

Streetworkers consider street children their equals:

Street children have the right to decide if the streetworker is significant to them.

They are not coerced into receiving any treatment or intervention. Relating with the child is more important.



RELATIONSHIP-FOCUSEDStreetwork focuses on addressing the child’s innate

need for a “significant other” through the building of a stable, caring relationship.

Involving the child in a web of services is secondary to this aim.



UNBOUNDED BY TIMEThe availability of the streetworker is defined by

attitude, not time.

Streetchildren must be able to view the streetworker as part of their environment, not a physical add-on from

time to time.



ALERTNESSTrust and mutual respect built enables the

streetworker to be alert to the moment the child becomes help-ready.

The ideal streetworker thus has an excellent sense of timing.



A HOLISTIC VIEW OF HELPING RESOURCES

The child’s individual strengths, and his/her immediate environment, are considered helping resources.

The child’s informal networks built around streetlife, and his/her strengths, are utilised in creating resources;

along with mainstream services, families, schools and businesses.



BUILDS THE SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES

A diverse range of community stakeholders are engaged and involved in the helping intervention.

This helps to enhance community capacity to tolerate and provide opportunities for the socially excluded.


STREETWORKER SUPPORT

DEMANDING NATURE OF STREETWORKThe methodology’s emphasis on intensive one-to-one support that is both flexible and innovative means that the streetworker’s job is tiring,

stressful and demanding.

NEED FOR EFFECTIVE SUPPORT SYSTEM The nature of streetwork creates a need for an effective support

system so that worker morale and high staff retention rates are maintained.

OPEN FAMILY’S RESPONSEOpen Family has developed a support system that replicates the

very nature of our model of assistance, i.e. one that prides itself on being INNOVATIVE and FLEXIBLE.


STREETWORKER SUPPORT

Our system of support has 5 components:

Mentoring System

Buddy System

Streetworker Network

Team Meetings

Professional and Clinical Supervision


STREETWORKER SUPPORT -MENTORING SYSTEM

Senior streetworkers are

assigned mentoring roles,

and provide practical advice and support to

newer workers.


STREETWORKER SUPPORT - BUDDY SYSTEM

Streetworker “buddies” keep in contact regularly, acting as sources

of support to each other.


STREETWORKER SUPPORT - STREETWORKER NETWORK

Streetworkers are constantly available and accessible to

each other and to the Streetwork Operations

Manager, for consultation, advice, in emergencies and

informally.


STREETWORKER SUPPORT - TEAM MEETINGS

Regular Team Meetings give

streetworkers the opportunity to

dialogue with each other, discuss

issues, and tease out problems


STREETWORKER SUPPORT - PROFESSIONAL AND CLINICAL SUPERVISION

Professional and Clinical Supervision is available, at any

time, at the request of the streetworker.

This is provided internally or externally, according to the preference of the worker.


CONTACT DETAILS

CONTACT: Nathan Stirling AM, Chief Executive Officer

ADDRESS: Open Family Australia Inc. PO Box 1170 South Melbourne Victoria

3205 Australia

TELEPHONE: (+613) 9 699 5588

FAX: (+613) 9 696 3326

EMAIL: [email protected]

WEBSITE: www.openfamily.com.au

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The OPEN FAMILY MODEL of STREET OUTREACH WORK A model of assistance for hard-to- reach young people...

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