Unite against youth homelessness

7th April 2011 by Esther Pinn

Do you think five billion dollars can eradicate homelessness in Australia?

That's how much money is being spent by the Australian government to remove the issue.

After hearing this figure straight from the mouth of the Minister of Housing and Homelessness Senator Hon. Mark Arbib, I thought to myself, "Surely five billion dollars is enough to eradicate homelessness from our society?"

But after attending the National Launch for Youth Homelessness Matters Day (April 6) at the Sydney Oasis Youth Support Network this week, I realised this wasn't the case. Money is only part of the solution to the problem.

It's our issue too

Senator Hon. Mark Arbib shared at the launch how youth homelessness is not just a government issue but a whole community issue. And he's right. We all need to get involved.

In light of National Youth Week, two initiatives have been launched to get the community involved in helping to remove youth homeless from our society.

Cate Blanchett and The Oasis: Homeless Short Film Competition

The stunning Academy Award-winning actress, Cate Blanchett attended the launch of The Oasis: Homeless Short Film Competition last Wednesday (April 6) to inspire young people help remove youth homelessness from society by participating in this competition.

As the Patron for the competition, she encouraged all high school students at the launch to "Get going, pick up those cameras and inspire us." This includes you!

What is it? The Oasis documentary that was released over three years ago has now become part of high school curriculum. After watching the documentary (which can now be viewed online at The Oasis website), use this inspiration to create your own three-minute documentary about homelessness in Australia and what can be done to make a difference in solving this issue.

Prize You can win $25,000 for your school

How to enter? Visit theoasismovie.com.au

Deadline September 16, 2011

Who can enter? All secondary school students

Former lead singer for rock band Midnight Oil and now the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, Peter Garett also made an appearance at the launch of the competition and offered some inspiring words:

“You can do it three minutes in a song, you can do it in three minutes in a film.”

You heard him, now get filming!

Sign a Petition

At the National Launch for Youth Homeless Matters Day, hosted by Oasis, Virgin Unite officially launched a new website that invites everyone and anyone to go online and sign a petition to end youth homelessness. If you want to be part of this then visit their website and sign away, endyouthhomelessness.com.au

Comments

Gail

April 18, 2011 at 5:34am

The Salvation Army recieve many houses every year from people bequesting them to the Salvation Army. In addition, the Salvation Army owns ALOT of land, much of it vacant. They also only pay their Ministers a small allowance BUT pay for their housong & vechicle costs..the allowance is not as much as minium wage so many Ministers (particularly with families) are also getting a Centrelink income. On top of that they recieve fundraising money equaling many hundreds of thousands of dollars and their Salvo Store prices are so huge now that disadvantaged people can no longer afford to shop there not to mention that the needy are not helped/given MUCH needed items (that were donated for this reason)after a certain amount of vouchers have been given out, even though there are still suitable items available...does anyone else think this is wrong? Stop sponging off the government & Australian people Salvation Army & start usuing what has been given to you to REALLY help people. In my opinion, its a case of look in your own back yard before you start looking to hold everyone else accountable.

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