Hume council is desperately seeking the reinstatement of funds for a program helping young people who are disengaged from education or employment.
The council will write to the state and federal governments asking them to reconsider funding cuts to the Moving Forward Program, which provides help for 15 to 19 year olds who are disengaged, socially isolated and vulnerable.
The federal government currently funds the program through the Youth Connections Program. However, funding will finish on December 31.
Moving Forward began in 2010 and is offered three times a year in Broadmeadows, Craigieburn and Sunbury to teach vital life skills and work readiness to some of Hume’s most vulnerable young people.
Hume council currently funds a program facilitator and the federal government’s funding pays for an additional council staff member at a cost of $52,772 a year.
If the funding cuts go ahead, the program would no longer be viable in its current form from January 1.
Hume mayor Adem Atmaca said the council would write to the minister and opposition education spokesman about the effect this funding cut would have on young people who were disengaged from school.
“Once you fall through all the nets, you’re in no man’s land,” Cr Atmaca said. “If they can’t do this program, they can’t do anything. This program works for them. It’s just frustrating that a fantastic program like this is going to be cut … it’s not a lot of money.”
In the four years since Moving Forward started, 258 referrals have been received and 97 young people have completed the program. Of those graduates, 85 per cent have continued with, or returned to, further education and 90 per cent have been linked to ongoing, long-term case management support.
When Star Weekly asked Senator Scott Ryan, who is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, if the funding cuts would be reconsidered, he said the previous Labor government had not provided any funding or budget allocations for the program to continue.
“The 2014-15 budget delivers funding for a number of new initiatives to provide more opportunities for young Australians to participate in education or employment,” he said.
“These employment programs include the Job Services Australia program, Disability Employment Services, the Green Army program, the Indigenous Employment Program, and new Work for the Dole arrangements.”
