Invest in a Victorian Youth Wellbeing and Stability Package that consolidates and strengthens early intervention, youth‑appropriate housing and homelessness responses, supported transitions from care, community‑based social connection initiatives, and youth‑focused AOD outreach for young Victorians aged 12–25.
This priority recommendation draws on Uniting’s direct service experience, practice evidence, and the lived experiences of young people whose stories appear throughout this submission. Together, these provide a compelling case for a coordinated youth investment that reflects the realities facing young Victorians today.
Experiences facing young people
Young people consistently appear across Uniting’s statewide service system as a cohort facing multiple, compounding pressures — pressures that are not the result of individual failings, but of systemic gaps that can be addressed through timely, relational and developmentally appropriate investment. The themes emerging point clearly toward the need for a consolidated, cross‑system Youth Wellbeing and Stability Package.
Earlier intervention and clearer service pathways
Uniting’s work in Early Help, Integrated Family Services, and disability‑focused family support consistently shows that families — including adolescents — are weighed down by fragmented systems. Many are managing intersecting challenges such as disability, trauma, limited community support, and health or housing pressures. They describe feeling overwhelmed by eligibility requirements, long waits, and disjointed referral pathways.
This is especially acute in regional areas. A mother involved in the Parenting Children with Complex Disabilities program described having to travel “two and a half to three hours” for paediatric appointments after local services were defunded, often needing to pay upfront costs she could not afford. This story reflects a broader experience — that access to assessments and specialist care often hinges on whether a trusted practitioner can help families navigate complexity.
Recommendations in this submission to expand service navigation capacity, mainstream Early Help, improve access to paediatrics and allied health, and reform The Orange Door funding model all respond directly to these observations. Together, they lay the groundwork for a youth‑focused early intervention component within the Package.
Housing barriers that shape young people’s life trajectories
Youth homelessness and housing insecurity emerge across Uniting’s services as defining issues. In 2025, almost 3,000 people seeking help from Uniting’s homelessness programs were turned away due to capacity constraints — and among those who recorded age, 47% were under 26. This signals a system not designed to meet the needs of adolescents and young adults.
Consumer stories vividly illustrate how these system failures are experienced:
- Halo, a young person in regional Victoria, applied for “up to 15 rental applications each week” without receiving a response. They spoke of feeling judged by property managers because of their appearance and clothing, revealing how implicit bias and youth discrimination shut young people out of housing even when they are doing everything right
- Cole, aged 17, described the overwhelming experience of being suddenly kicked out of home and trying to navigate temporary accommodation, paperwork, and multiple agencies alone. He said, “I couldn’t even go a few days” before realising he needed help, showing how quickly young people without support can enter deeper crisis.
Uniting’s practice experience reinforces that young people need housing responses specifically designed for them — not adult crisis options that fail to account for developmental needs, safety, or stability. The submission’s recommendations for youth‑specific crisis accommodation, targeted place‑based responses, strengthened private rental protections, and increased funding for specialist homelessness services directly inform the housing and homelessness element of the Package.
Components of the Package
Transitions from care: where early gaps become lifelong disadvantage
Young people transitioning from Out of Home Care consistently describe fractured planning processes, late engagement, and high caseloads that undermine their readiness for adulthood.
The experiences of siblings Jemma and Rowan demonstrate what is possible when transitions are supported well — and what happens when they are not.
- Jemma reported that Uniting staff ensured she stayed connected to school, supported scholarship applications, and helped her secure transitional housing that enabled her to keep her cat, manage subsidised rent, and build a rental profile. She highlighted how essential it was that workers helped her navigate lease sign‑off and access long‑neglected healthcare
- Rowan described a very different early experience: multiple workers at once, repeated questions, and feeling excluded from decisions that affected their life.
They emphasised the emotional toll of missing identification documents, explaining that the absence of basic paperwork blocked access to work, housing and a driver’s licence.
These stories illustrate both the risk and the opportunity: when transitions are rushed or inconsistent, young people can become disconnected within weeks; when they are gradual, relational and practical, young people move forward with confidence.
This submission’s recommendations to strengthen kinship care, deepen transition supports, and expand Better Futures form the transition‑to‑adulthood strand of the Package.
Loneliness, belonging and stigma‑free youth supports
Growing social isolation among young people is a critical concern. Research shows one in three young adults experience problematic loneliness, and Uniting’s own experience confirms the consequences of this disconnection.
Uniting’s Meals for Change program demonstrates a simple but powerful solution: enabling young people to share affordable meals in community spaces. One participant in the program highlights its impact: “I can not only pay for my own food, but also my friends’… It just feels amazing to be able to do that for once in my life.”
This reflects a consistent theme across Uniting’s observations: when you reduce stigma and create accessible social spaces, young people re‑engage in ways that significantly improve their wellbeing.
We also highlight the shrinking capacity of youth outreach within the AOD system — even though AOD outreach is precisely the flexible, relational approach that engages young people earlier and supports harm reduction.
Recommendations to fund Meals for Change, expand youth outreach, translate the AOD Strategy into action, and reduce stigma anchor the wellbeing and connection elements of the Package.
Regional inequity amplifying every challenge
Young people in regional and rural areas face further disadvantage due to limited-service availability, workforce shortages, and long travel distances.
Experiences shared by families across regional Victoria — including the mother who waited years for paediatric assessments and had to manage travel and upfront costs — show how regional inequity can escalate routine developmental or health needs into crises.
Recommendations focused on assertive outreach, place‑based responses, and targeted investment in regional service capacity are essential to ensure that the Package benefits young people across the entire state.
Why this Package is the logical next step
While this submission includes a full suite of recommendations across child and family wellbeing, housing, financial wellbeing and social and emotional wellbeing, the evidence clearly shows that young people sit at the centre of many intersecting pressures. Their outcomes depend not on one service system but on the relationships between several.
The Youth Wellbeing and Stability Package:
- Aligns and strengthens youth‑focused recommendations already in the submission
- Responds directly to Uniting’s frontline observations and the consumer stories presented throughout
- Provides a coordinated investment approach across the systems that shape young people’s lives
- Reflects early intervention and prevention principles central to current Victorian reforms
- Offers a clear, high‑value policy direction for improving youth outcomes statewide.
By consolidating these elements, the Package ensures that young people have the stability, support and connection they need to thrive — and that Victoria’s broader investment in early intervention and community wellbeing delivers its intended outcomes.
