Youth Projects

Youth Projects, founded in 1984, is an independent, registered charity that provides health, outreach, employment, education, and training services to individuals experiencing disadvantage including unemployment, homelessness, mental health challenges, and alcohol and other drug dependency.

Youth Projects operates under six domains of service: homelessness, primary health, mental health, alcohol and other drugs, employment and training, and social enterprise. With a workforce of 200 people across the north, west, east, and inner suburbs of Melbourne, Youth Projects promotes inclusion, builds resilience, and creates opportunities through providing person-centred, holistic, and wrap-around services. Youth Projects programs and initiatives address the complex needs prevalent among the disadvantaged, with wrap-around services that respond to the needs of our most vulnerable including employment, education, training, healthcare, mobile outreach, mental health, harm reduction, and alcohol and other drug support.

To enable long-term sustainability and focus resources on services that lead to the greatest possible outcomes for young people and people experiencing homelessness, our work is continuously guided by a comprehensive outcomes and impact framework focused on five core goals – improved health, meaningful employment, greater sense of belonging, safety and security, decreased risk of homelessness, and longer lives.

Our impact is evidence-based, and our success is demonstrated through many years of delivering specialised youth employment, training, education and transition support programs and initiatives including federal, state, and local government contracts which include Transition to Work (Department of Employment and Workplace Relations). As a specialised youth employment and transition provider, Youth Projects has a proven track record in helping young people move into secure, long-term, and meaningful employment.

Youth Projects holds contracts with a range of organisations including local, state and federal government including:

• Community Health Services (Federal and State) 
• Local Social Services (Councils; Philanthropic) 
• Commercial Service Agreements (Social Enterprise) 
• Employment Service and Training – either via subcontracting, or directly with Federal and State funders.

Youth Projects’ commitment to high standards in governance, security, and equality not only enhances our credibility, but ensures a more impactful delivery of services to our community. These include:

• Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission (ACNC)
• Social Traders Certification
• ISO Certification – ISO 19001
• ISO/IEC 27001:2013
• ISO ISMS (DESE Information Security Systems Scheme
• Registered Learn Local Provider with the State Government of Victoria
• Certificate of Compliance with the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.

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