“We supply them with tents because there is nowhere else to put them”, was one of the stark statements we heard from our guest speaker, Maria Leebeck, last Wednesday morning. She is the President of Gold Coast Youth Service, an organisation that primarily is set up to care for the homeless and destitute young people on the Gold Coast. And yet, they are not allowed to set up those tents in Council owned caravan parks…
 
“Currently, there are roughly 250 “rough sleepers” on the Gold Coast we know by name” she said. They come from all types of backgrounds, but most are young people who are ‘still at home’, but don’t want to live there, due to issues such as

 
Domestic Violence. The primary age group is from 12 – 16, but their clientele is not exclusively in that age group. In addition to accommodation, Maria’s organisation provides emergency relief, one-off assistance, and ‘Chill-Out’ spaces at major events such as the Schoolies.One of their major accommodation venues is “The Foyer”, a block of units on Smith Street, Southport (photo right). With an annual budget of about $4,000,000, the organisation is mainly funded by government and philanthropists, but just to give an idea of the scale: a grant of $200,000 for the purpose of helping families was all exhausted by hosting them in Motels. They also work with Anglicare to get housing. But, if one is New Zealand born, they are not eligible. Over the past year, they have supported some 1,800 people.
 
A copy of her PowerPoint presentation is in the Downloads Section on the right. More information can be obtained from their website: https://gcys.org.au/
 
Photo: Maria Leebeck (centre) with Matthew Clayworth and Ashleigh Symes from Wilsons Advisory, one of our Corporate Members