Greg is a Case Manager who works in Anglicare Victoria’s Breaking the Barriers program. The program assists 18-21 year olds with the process of leaving out-of-home care.
Greg’s day-to-day work varies and could involve taking a young person to appointments, helping to find a suitable place to live, budgeting and assisting with finding work, amongst many other tasks to provide support to young people through a hard transition to living independently.
According to Greg, leaving care at the age of eighteen is too young.
“Any form of out-of-home care that has been a young person’s home for several years, whether they like it or they don’t like it, it’s their stability. All of a sudden, at eighteen that stability goes,” says Greg.
In one instance, one of Greg’s clients lasted three months living independently, after returning back to his family home. He needed to get out, yet he had nowhere to go to. The young person wasn’t ready to leave home. With a limited income and high housing affordability, young people such as these, in Greg’s opinion, need an initiative like The Home Stretch to be implemented.
“People don’t know the reality of what is required for these kids to live day to day, and maintain a roof over their head, and to be able to eat and to pay the bills on a limited income – it’s so hard.”
“One of the biggest issues affecting young people today is accessing affordable and stable housing,” he says.
At the end of the day, Greg finds his role very rewarding.
“It’s really cool to work with young people and help them move forward.”
