Hearing directly from vulnerable young Australians

The first results of Mission Australia’s “National Survey of Young Australians” from 2009 have been released. Included are the views of 1013 young people who were homeless or in insecure accommodation, out of home care, or in a youth detention centre. These early results focus on this group of vulnerable young people, and considers their main issues of concern, where they go to seek support and who they admire. As with the previous year’s survey, the number one issue of concern for vulnerable young people in 2009 was body image followed by alcohol use.

Click here to download “Hearing directly from vulnerable young Australians – Snapshot 2010″

Tune in, Not Out

“Tune In Not Out” is a website designed to help young people navigate through the tricky situations that come along as they grow up.  Everything from alcohol and other drugs through to body piercing, mental health and relationship problems  are covered, with a twist.  “Tune In Not Out” uses multimedia including video and audio, as well as the traditional “fact sheets”.  A lot of the multimedia content is created by young people themselves, dealing with the issues that they identify.  Currently,  “Tune In Not Out” is running its annual website survey, which takes about 5 minutes to complete.  Check out the survey for your chance to win a iPad!

Check out the “Tune In Not Out” site here.

Complete the survey here.

Young Artists Mentoring Opportunity

“Jump” is a national mentoring program for young people aged over 18, who are wanting to develop a career in the arts. The program links young people to a mentor, who will work with them over a period of 10 months, to develop a creative project. They young people also have opportunities to access a range of professional development throughout the term of the project. There is a particular focus on Indigenous young people, as well as young people interested in literature, music, theatre and visual arts.

To find out more, click here.

Foundations of health built in early childhood

The Centre on the Developing Child at Harvard University have released a ground breaking report titled “Foundations of Lifelong Health are Built in Early Childhood”.   The report documents what many have known for a long time: what occurs in the early years can have effects long into adulthood.   The report summarises a range of scientific discoveries with regards to child development, and has a range of recommendations for services and governments.   Some of the key findings include:

•   Experiences and environmental factors can “unlock” genes: nature via nurture.
•   Early experiences of adversity in childhood can impact the later development of the stress response system, leading  to problems with the brain, metabolism, and then immune and cardiovascular system
•   We need to re-think “early intervention” and “prevention” programs, and focus on the pre / anti natal period and the early years after birth.

Read the key findings here.

Read the full report here.

Alcohol’s Harm to Others

The Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation Ltd (AER) in conjunction with Turning Point have released a report into the impacts of alcohol use on people other than the drinker.   The report is the first major attempt to quantify the impact of drinking on other people, and brought up some startling results including:

• Nearly three quarters of adults have been negatively effected by someone else’s drinking
• 70 000 Australians are the victims of alcohol-related assaults each year
• More than 360 people died and approximately 14 000 people were hospitalised because of someone else’s drinking in 2005

Download the full report here.

Download the summary report here.

Rate the Dovetail Website!

Evaluation of the Dovetail initiative is currently being undertaken by Fieldworx. By clicking here you will help in the evaluation of the Dovetail website. You will also get the chance to get across any suggestions or comments anonymously. This is a great way to help improve the Dovetail website or to express your approval for all things dovetail.org.au related.

TAKE THE SURVEY

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice

“Working Together” has been developed to provide workers with a comprehensive resource on social, emotional and mental health concerns in Indigenous Australians.  It provides holistic, culturally appropriate information contributed by many well respected authors, including strategies to address mental health concerns in the individual as well as organisational and systemic responses.   This fantastic resource is available free of charge, or can be downloaded.

For order or download a copy click here.

Over the Rainbow

Open Doors Youth Service have received funding to help services work with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people.   To start off the project, they’ve developed a 15 minute online survey, to get an understanding of the issues from the people working on the front line.   If you work in the community, government or human service sector in Queensland and you work with young people aged between 12 and 24, this survey is for you.   If you complete the survey, you’ll go into the draw to win an iPod shuffle!

Click here to complete the survey.

What young people know, like and need

Throughout 2008/09, Family Planning Queensland (FPQ) conducted consultations with young people around what they know, like and need with regards to sexual health, blood borne viruses and youth friendly services.   Based on the information from these consultations, FPQ have now developed a series of videos for the youth sector to convey the results of the consultation.

To view the videos or find out more click here.

Outcome Measures Survey

Dovetail in conjunction with the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research (CYSAR) at UQ are looking at the various outcome measurement tools currently available for use in youth AOD services. Measuring outcomes in clients can be tricky for front-line services so in order to find the right outcome measurement tool for your service, we’re conducting a brief survey on the Dovetail website.
Please take the time to fill it out.
Based on your survey responses, we aim to put together a suite of relevant and practical outcome measures that includes information on what each tool is for, what it measures, and how long it take to complete.

TAKE ME TO THE SURVEY

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