PRESS RELEASE: CREATE APPLAUDS VIC GOVERNMENT’S LANDMARK SUPPORT TO 21
MEDIA RELEASE
24 November 2020
CREATE APPLAUDS VIC GOVERNMENT’S
LANDMARK SUPPORT TO 21
Young people with a care experience across Victoria and CREATE Foundation’s dedicated team applauded today’s landmark step forward by the Andrews’ Government announcement to invest $64.7 million to improve the futures of children and young people in out-of-home care.
“This ground breaking achievement is a testament to the hard work of young people to not let this issue go. Their dedication will ensure future generations of young people have a better chance of good outcomes transitioning to independence,” commented CREATE Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer, Ms Jacqui Reed.
22-year-old Maddi, from Victoria, was raised in foster care and shared “I was crying as soon as I was reading about it! I was so relieved, you know, between 18-21 you learn the most about yourself and that is so nice for other kids to have a chance to stay in their home to 21. No other family kicks you out at 18 and the system shouldn’t either. I never knew if our voices would ever make a difference and today shows me it does!”
A lifetime of work in this area has been undertaken by the dedicated CREATE team, since the 2008 CREATE Report Card on Transitioning from Care report designed to encourage governments to allow young people to have the option to remain in a suitable care placement until they are 21 years of age. The same entitlement many other young people are afforded.
“This announcement buoys our enthusiasm to encourage other states to follow the progressive lead of the Victorian government,” said Ms Reed.
“CREATE and our members, the children and young people in the care of the state, applaud the Andrews government and urge other states and territories to answer the call of our future young adults to have this stable start in life,” added Ms Reed.
CREATE Foundation is the national consumer body representing the voices of children and young people with an out-of-home care experience (including kinship care, foster care and residential care). CREATE develops policy and research to report on and advocate for a better care system.
Read CREATE’s decade of independent research profiling the views of children and young people with a care experience: https://create.org.au/publications/research-reports/
Visit the CREATE website at www.create.org.au
For further comment from CREATE’s Chief Executive, Ms Jacqui Reed, and/or a young person with care experience contact Leigh White, CREATE Communications Advisor, via (m) 0431 932 122 or [email protected]
Key statistics on the care sector in Australia:
1. 44,906 children were in out-of-home care across Australia (AIHW 2020)
2. Young people in out-of-home care are 16 times more likely to be under a youth justice order than the general population
3. 35% of young people experience homelessness within the first year of leaving care
4. 46% of males have been involved with the justice system since leaving care
5. 29% of young people who have left care or preparing to leave care are unemployed
6. 36% children and young people in care do not live with any of their siblings
7. 35% of young people in care have five or more caseworkers during their time in care
8. 67% of young people in care over the age of 15 are not aware of having a leaving care plan
McDowall, J. J. (2008). CREATE’s CREATE Report Card 2008: Transitioning from Care. Sydney: CREATE Foundation.
McDowall, J. J. (2016). CREATE’s Go Your Own Way resource for young people transitioning from care in Australia: An evaluation. Sydney: CREATE Foundation.
McDowall, J. J. (2018). Out-of-home care in Australia: Children and young people’s views after five years of National Standards. Sydney: CREATE Foundation.
