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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (16 February) . . Page.. 169 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

We provide youth services at eight areas, including Lanyon. Mr Hargreaves, we have responded to a community request to provide support and activities there. We have provided an area in a community building. We have arranged with the YWCA to provide some youth worker presence on the weekends there. We are reviewing that in early April just to see where we go from there. We will be looking at things like the usage and what else needs to be done. We provide a focus for recreational activities for young people and also allow for early intervention when young people seek support. Activities promote active and positive engagement within the community by young people. We have eight youth centres.

There are a number of other things. We have a Weston Creek/Woden police project. We have community participation in a wide range of activities in schools, ranging from things like the Duke of Edinburgh Award through to various other activities which we fund when organisations put up suggestions on ways in which they can assist youth, all types of youth, ranging from youth with specific problems to youth in general. We have a wide range of information and counselling services, things like the Youth Telephone Counselling Service and the very effective Pathways Information Service for young people.

We have a wide range of programs for young people who could be at risk. We have the safe schools policy framework. We have student management consultants and student counsellors. The student counsellors are there to assist parents, students and teachers on issues that might affect a student's progress and adjustment in school. This is to help any student who is at risk or may become at risk. We have programs available in withdrawal units for students who experience any sorts of problems, be they behavioural, emotional, educational or social - things of a serious nature that require intensive intervention. Those programs include, Mr Hargreaves, things like the adolescents development program and the itinerate student management consultant.

We have the Weston student management program, the Urambi student management program and the Yarralumla student management program. We have the alternative education program located at Dickson and the Eclipse program at the Canberra College at Weston. We have high school student support centres based at the Belconnen and Tuggeranong youth centres, staffed by a youth worker and a teacher. They provide assistance to young people who are experiencing difficulties, the young people that you are talking about who are at risk of going further.

We have the Youth Connection Student/Youth Coordinating Service to assist students at risk. We now have an educational coordinator too, Mr Hargreaves, who is based at the Civic Youth Centre. That person is responsible for providing support and assistance to young people who are outside the formal education system or who are unemployed. That worker links young people to existing education and labour market programs and health, welfare and community support services.

There are three services which specifically target support to at-risk youth. The Youth Connection Youth Work Service and the youth education access program provide support for students at risk of leaving school early. Often, when students truant, that is

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