Salvos work to build strong community for youth
Salvos work to build strong community for youth
25 May 2018
Rob Ellis is passionate about building a strong community for struggling youth and children.
More than 500 young people and children will go through the doors of the St Kilda Crisis Centre (Vic.) this year and when they do, their lives will change. That’s because the refuge provides more than shelter, meals and case management; it offers hope and healing.
Youth and family services manager Rob Ellis says his team’s unwavering commitment to building positive relationships with all their young clients is their most powerful tool for change.
“The foundation of our work at Upton Rd is about providing safe refuge, building positive relationships and forming strong community,”he says.
“Many we work with are very unwell, experiencing significant issues in relation to mental health and wellbeing. Much of this is related to trauma associated with experiences of violence, badly-broken family relationships and the lack of safe attachments in early life.
Undoing this damage takes a long time and total commitment from the whole team to each young person. I feel that’s our greatest strength.”
Rob has been with The Salvation Army for almost 19 years, 14 of them in crisis services. It’s an area he probably never imagined he would be working in when he started volunteering at Melbourne’s Brosnan Youth Services in the 1990s.
“I was predominantly working with young men recently released from prison,”he recalls.
“Through my work there, the isolation, exclusion, poverty and futility about the future experienced by so many young people became clear to me. At the time I was working in business-related roles, but I made the decision then to train for a career working with youth.”
Rob describes the purpose-built facility at Upton Rd as “unique in the youth accommodation landscape”.
“The funding we receive from The Salvation Army allows us a high level of creativity in our programming, particularly in relation to health and psychological outcomes, life skills and education activities and pathways. These are aspects not typically available in a youth homeless setting,”he says.
“There many rewarding parts of our work, but the greatest is knowing that our program can be genuinely life-changing—such as the energy put into our edible gardens and the hospitality of our sustainable food and meals program. The opportunity to be part of this community at such a beautiful site is a constant joy.”
It is a joy, too, for the dedicated team when their young people grow and develop over time to the point where they can see—and express—their potential for meaningful lives.
“They are amazing, showing a determination and resilience to overcome the issues that have impacted so negatively on their lives,”Rob says.
“They deserve—and need—to feel genuinely cared for and loved; this aspect of our service is the most appreciated by our young people.”
The Salvation Army's 2018 Red Shield Appeal will be held 26-27 May.
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