Open Family Australia

Sarah's Story

"I could see that someone was living on a cold concrete slab... It turned out to be a young girl" said Jessica, an Open Family Australia Outreach Worker. 

When Jessica, stumbled across the make-shift shelter, she knew the person living there needed help. She suspected the inhabitant was a young girl and left a note for her, introducing herself and offering support.

The young girl turned out to be 14 year old Sarah.  While Sarah wasn’t ready to trust a stranger, she exchanged notes with Jessica who also left practical help – a swag, a food parcel and toiletries.

It took time, but Sarah began to realise that someone genuinely cared for her. She left a note for Jessica saying she was ready to meet. Jessica listened to Sarah’s story.

Sarah had been raised by her mum, who was in-and-out of psychiatric wards due to her bipolar disorder. Her mum also had a new boyfriend who didn’t want a young teenager around. He was a heavy drinker... and violent. After months of fights and physical attacks, Sarah felt she had no alternative but to leave home. She started off sleeping on the couches of school friends, but eventually her friend’s parents asked her to leave. The school encouraged her to return home, but she was too scared and didn’t want her mum to get into trouble by telling the police about her mum’s violent boyfriend.  

Rather than hurt her mum, Sarah chose to live on the streets. She stopped going to school and made her temporary bedroom on a concrete slab.

There, she ran into older kids on the streets – all heavy drug users – who told her she must steal to stay alive…

By the time Jessica found Sarah, she was underweight, exhausted and had a chest infection. She was terrified of being made to return home and also scared of her nightmarish ‘bedroom’ on the concrete slab.

Jessica immediately rang a medical clinic and drove Sarah to the appointment. She then connected her with welfare support. Jessica also rang all the local housing providers and found Sarah safe accommodation.

Thanks to our work at Open Family Australia, this devastating story about a young girl's homeless journey had a positive outcome. 

Sarah is safe now, but there are thousands of young people just like her who need our help. Please, donate now to help young people like Sarah.

Tristan Has A Past

Tristan has a past, a history, but he will not let it define him.

From a violent family, to foster homes, to the streets; Tristan fought for his survival.  With your help, we can protect more teenagers like Tristan.

When we first met Tristan, he was traumatised, anxious and afraid. To save his own life, he had run away from violence at home; only to end up on the streets.

Tristan needs your help.   Please DONATE TODAY to provide life changing support for young people like Tristan who cannot depend on their own family.

Moving house is one of the most stressful things we do in life. Being separated from family, friends and familiar surroundings is tough on anyone. At 15 years of age, Tristan not only moved homes, but fled across the country.

When Tristan was 8, he had been taken away from his violent mother and became a Ward of the State.   Shifting constantly between temporary foster homes; he woke up in new surroundings every few months, not knowing when the rug would be pulled out from under him again.

In 2013, Tristan rebuilt his strenuous relationship with his mother and moved back home. But what started as a happy reunion quickly turned to despair as she returned to inflicting the same abuse upon him that she had before. Tristan’s mother would often neglect to care for him; she would torment Tristan emotionally and psychologically every day, and began withholding food as a favoured punishment.  

If Tristan escaped her clutches during a violent attack, she would run after him with the first item she could grasp as a weapon and beat him until she tired.

There seemed to be no end to the emotional turmoil he would be put through.

We need your help to ensure young people like Tristan do not fall through the cracks. Please donate today before winter’s chill settles in around young people sleeping on the streets.

(Plus, if you give before June 30th you can claim the tax deduction in this financial year.)

Feeling worthless, unwanted, exhausted and unlovable; Tristan ran away from Northern Territory to New South Wales. The move was his last chance to escape an unbearable situation of extreme abuse.

When Tristan arrived in New South Wales he had nowhere to live and no family to turn to.

Tristan met other young people loitering on the streets. They were a bad influence; encouraging excessive drinking behaviour, introducing him to marijuana and petty crime.

So often, the friends that our young people turn to for help, only lead them further off the right path. We need your ongoing support to ensure we can intervene, present positive role models, encourage self-worth and help young people find the courage to choose a better future.

When our Outreach Worker Emily met Tristan; her first priority was to assist him into stable housing, liaise with his legal guardian and clear some court matters related to his time on the streets.

Next, Emily encouraged Tristan to return to education and also be matched with a mentor, both of which have had a positive impact on Tristan’s life and his self-esteem.   Seeing his confidence and self-worth grow every day, surrounded by people that truly value and care for him, has been a heart-warming experience for Emily and Tristan’s mentor.  

Tristan is excelling in our unique learning environment, studying toward TAFE certificates in Maths, Literacy, Horticulture and Civil Construction. He now has hopes of undertaking an Apprenticeship and living independently in the near future.

Every day our Outreach Workers are supporting hundreds of young people like Tristan. Kids who are desperate, feel helpless and abandoned. 

Tristan has a past, a history, but he will not let it define him. He is gaining the courage daily to build a better future and Open Family Australia will continue to stand by Tristan’s side.

With your help, we can be there for young people when they have nowhere else to turn. Please donate now. You can also call us directly on 1300 669 600 or write to Open Family Australia, 155 Roden Street, West Melbourne, VIC 3003.

As an added help to you this tax time, if you give before June 30th you can claim the tax deduction in this financial year.

Thank you.

Where will you hide?

The nights are cold and long. The minutes tick by slowly: tick, tick, tick... It takes an eternity for one measly hour to pass. Tonight will be another hard night, with little sleep. Huddled under a bridge, knees tucked up to the chin, hands stuffed under armpits for warmth. This is not how a Tuesday night should be spent. Hunched over in the darkness; aching joints, stiff legs, the wind whips around the bridge pillar that presses cold against your back. At least the road overhead keeps the rain away.

Through the constant rumble of the traffic above, sitting in the dirt and the filth, you wait for dawn. But when it comes the strong beams of light barely penetrate your soul. You are thankful for only one thing - that you weren’t harassed by drugged-up strangers in the night. You don’t even count being alive as a blessing, it’s hard to be thankful for life when no-one would notice if you were gone.

Slowly you unfurl your legs, trying to massage away the damp cold that settled in overnight. There is no joy to be taken in the chirping morning bird song. It is merely a stark reminder that you are alone. No-one is here to wish you good morning. No-one looks for you during the day. No-one is thinking about you at all. You are worth nothing. And you will never be anything.

Feeling insignificant and worthless sits deep within your bones. Your mind drifts back to the countless times that Dad called you pathetic. The way he scorned your requests for help as Mum stubbed cigarettes out in your arms. Her eyes filled with hate.

Stinging tears stain your cheeks as you think of them. Home is no longer a place for you. It is a construct, a fictitious environment dreamt up by strangers living happier lives. Yours is desolate, decaying shell, housing vicious people who you cannot trust, to which you will never return.

You step out from under the bridge and into the wind. You have no school or workplace to go to. You have one objective for the day… Where will you hide tonight? Where will you hide from the weather and the volatile people that angrily roam the streets?

When will your life turn around?

Countless numbers of young people that Open Family Australia support have lived this very experience. Your donation will help us deliver young people into safety, housing, education and employment. Please donate today.

Thank you.