Breaking down barriers between employers and the jobless in Melbourne’s north-west is the only way to give young people self-esteem, Youth Projects chief executive Melanie Raymond says.
Ms Raymond runs the Transitions to Work program at Glenroy’s Youth Transition Centre, offering some hope to young people aged 15-21 living in the north-west region, which includes Sunbury, Craigieburn and Coolaroo.
The region has a youth unemployment rate of 15.1 per cent, but Ms Raymond said there are some neighbourhoods where the jobless rate climbs as high as 33 per cent.
Ms Raymond said the 12-month program aims to help young people to break out of long-term unemployment, helping them gain skills needed to find a job by studying topics that interest them in a setting that welcomes them.
She said the program deals with “very vulnerable” people often experiencing mental health issues and homelessness.
“When young people don’t finish a year 12 certificate or its equivalent, they risk serious lifetime social and economic disadvantages,” she said. “Worse still, on current trends, so will their children.”
Fifty-three young people signed up for the program in its first two weeks. Ms Raymond said this is proof they want a “better path”.
“So often they are being sent signals that they are worthless,” she said.
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