News

Do you need help?

Latest News

Media Release, Oct 17, 2023

Brisbane Youth Service receives new funding for domestic violence program from the Paul Ramsay Foundation

Brisbane Youth Service (BYS) has been awarded a $250,000 grant to enhance its services for young people using violence. The grant is part of a $13.6 million funding package that the Paul Ramsay Foundation (PRF), in partnership with the Australian Communities Foundation (ACF), has distributed to 58 organisations in Australia working with key groups impacted […]

Media Release, Sep 28, 2023

Brisbane Youth Service Welcomes State Government Announcement of New Emergency Accommodation for Young People

Brisbane Youth Service is grateful to Minister Scanlon and the Queensland Department of Housing for today’s announcement that a vacant Brisbane motel will be transformed to accommodate vulnerable young people experiencing homelessness. Brisbane Youth Service CEO Pam Barker said that while the sector works to create long-term housing solutions, all emergency options must be explored […]

Posted Sep 06, 2023

BYS STATEMENT – VOICE TO PARLIAMENT

BYS STATEMENT – VOICE TO PARLIAMENT Message from our President Mark Wheatley and CEO Pam Barker At BYS, we are proud to support the Voice to Parliament. Since 1977, Brisbane Youth Service (BYS) has worked to create new futures for homeless and at-risk young people (aged 12-25 years) and their children. We meet young people […]

Posted Jul 20, 2023

Brisbane Community Takes Action to Address Youth Homelessness

Together, Brisbane Youth Service (BYS), Brisbane City Council (BCC), the Property Industry Foundation and generous corporate partners have turned a vacant house into a home for four young people experiencing homelessness. The property, made available through the BCC Community Housing Partnership Project, was generously furnished by five of the Foundation’s corporate sponsors, who donated items […]

Posted May 19, 2023

Courier Mail: What the New Housing Minister Must Do

BYS congratulates and welcomes our new Minister for Housing, the Honourable Meaghan Scanlon MP. Following the cabinet shake-up, BYS CEO Pam Barker shared her thoughts with the Courier Mail on the pressing priorities and potential solutions for the new housing minister. Minister Scanlon visited BYS late last year for a frank discussion about how to […]

Posted May 16, 2023

9NEWS: BYS and Jacaranda Housing Partnership Creating Homes for Winter

More public housing is finally coming online in the South East to get struggling Queenslanders into a home, before winter sets in. But providers say there’s still no end in site and are calling on more emergency action. Watch the full story on 9NEWS:

Posted May 12, 2023

ABC News: For LGBTQIA+ young people, the housing market is even tighter

Eden feels safer on the street than a hostel, where they must identify as a man or woman for a bed. The non-binary 24-year-old has been sleeping in a Brisbane CBD shopfront since January. The city’s rental market is tighter than it has ever been – but for people who are gender diverse, the options are […]

Posted May 04, 2023

ABC News: ‘Cascade effect’ pushing people into homelessness after rental prices, property scarcity hit records.

For Rhiannon*, the last three years have been a first-hand tour through the housing crisis. Forced to leave home at 17, she’s moved between crisis hotel accommodation, transitional housing and couch-surfing after a share house didn’t work out. At her lowest point, she was spending the night in front of a shop in Brisbane’s CBD. […]

Posted Apr 06, 2023

COURIER MAIL: ‘Unprecedented’ spike in youth homelessness in Queensland

Advocates have pleaded with the state government to come up with a specialised solution for young homeless Queenslanders, who are being violently and sexually abused in crisis accommodation designed for adults. Young homeless Queenslanders are being sexually and violently assaulted in mixed-dorm crisis accommodation designed for adults as advocates flag an “unprecedented” spike in youth […]

Posted Apr 06, 2023

INQUEENSLAND: Queensland needs to do more to reduce the ranks of its homeless youth

The numbers of young people experiencing homelessness – some as young as 12 – are exploding in Queensland. Long term solutions are urgently needed, writes Pam Barker. Our youth workers do their best to keep young people safe, however, they are often forced to present the tough choice of sleeping rough or in […]

Posted Mar 25, 2023

ABC News: Children in Queensland’s foster and residential care system are living on the streets of Brisbane.

Hundreds of children under Queensland government care are in ‘other living arrangements’, for many that means homelessness Self-placing is the term the Queensland government use when a child under its care leaves a foster, kinship or residential care placement. Others use the term homeless. Where do self-placing children go? Pam Barker and her team at […]

Posted Mar 22, 2023

Q&A with Clinic GP, Dr Mairaed Crawford

Seven questions with Clinic GP, Dr Mairaed Crawford What do you do here at Brisbane Youth Service? I am one of the doctors (GPs) working in the BYS clinic. I see young people for all sorts of things – mental health issues, sexual and reproductive health, arranging immunisations and medications, reviewing complex medical conditions. […]