Open Family Australia believes that education is a vital component of a young person’s ability to improve their personal circumstance, now and into the future. People who experience disadvantage and homelessness as a young person are more likely to continue the cycle across their lifetime.
The longer young people remain in school, the greater the chance that they will gain long term employment and break the cycles of poverty, drug and alcohol dependency, and other issues affecting young people at-risk.
There is a direct correlation between the level of education obtained and the prospect of future employment - the lower the level of education a person completes, the greater the difficulty they face in securing employment. A study conducted by the Business Council of Australia revealed that 21% of young men and 59% of young women who left school in year 9 remained unemployed seven years after leaving school. Students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to continue to tertiary education and tend to achieve lower results across all years of education. Continuing into tertiary education further increases a person’s chance of employment however, tertiary admission is usually dependent on the level of secondary education achieved.
Education also has an impact on crime in that continuing education substantially reduces the propensity to commit crime.
At Open Family Australia our Education Alliance is conducted over four programs:
- Back to School
- Links to Learning
- Scholarships
- Education Partnerships (Individual Scholarship Program)
Mum and I were fighting all the time and it wasn’t a happy place for me anymore. I had told Mum that one of her relatives had sexually abused me. I don’t know why but she didn’t believe me. I think that is what hurt me the most – I’m her daughter and she is supposed to protect me but when I finally got up the courage to tell her what had been going on, she turned her back on me.
In 2007, Open Family Australia secured funding through the Property Industry Foundation for the refurbishment and fit out for a mobile youth outreach service for Sydney. Recognising that Sydney's CBD is well catered for by other agencies, Open Family Australia decided to launch this service into Sydney's western suburbs, frequenting hot spots in the Warwick Farm, Liverpool and Fairfield regions. 
The Melbourne Chatterbox operates three nights a week in Melbourne's CBD and inner suburbs. The service is manned by a team of volunteers headed up by Open Family Australia's Volunteer Coordinator and Chatterbox Volunteer Committee. The service has been operational in Melbourne since 2002 and is proudly supported by Cabrini Health, the Tattersalls Foundation and PFD Foods.
Our recycled boutique stocks a large range of quality women's, men's and children's clothing and accessories as well as books and bric 'a' brac.
Open Family Australia works in Victoria and NSW, providing Outreach support to young people at risk in these communities. 
Assertive Outreach is a model that offers youth focused services to street frequenting young people in the environments where they congregate. This model of providing comprehensive ongoing support in all aspects of a young person’s life, rather than just concentrating on one issue is successful, as it provides the young person with support from a worker who is available for all their needs and who also works to integrate them into mainstream society.
Education