Youth Support Services including Housing and Reintegration Services
Youth support services
Our department invests in a statewide network of youth support services to work with young people with low to medium support needs through to high level complex needs.
In particular, services are targeted for young people aged 12* to 21 at risk of:
- disconnection from their family, community, prosocial or recreation activities or informal support networks
- disengagement from school, training and/or employment
- harm including substance abuse, self-harm and suicide
- cultural disconnection
- homelessness
- entering criminal justice systems including Youth Justice (young people who are at risk of entering the Youth Justice System are known to police and have been cautioned more than once).
*At risk young people aged 8 to 11 may be eligible for assistance if a sibling aged 12 years or older is already receiving youth services support.
Youth support services focus on 4 key outcomes to help young people:
- connect to positive family support
- get a job or engage in training or education
- lead a healthy and violence-free life
- have a safe, stable place to live.
Youth support service types
Youth support service providers usually deliver up to 2 service types: access services and support services.
- Access services provide information, advice and referral to services the young person needs (e.g. drug or alcohol, mental health, housing, legal, education, and domestic and family violence services).
- Support and case management services provide case management and case coordination, one-on-one support and assistance, including referrals to young people who need additional or specialised help (e.g. working with them to identify goals and strategies for re-engaging with their family and school, entering the workforce, or developing coping mechanisms or parenting skills).
This prevention and early intervention approach looks at the individual needs of the young person and provides access to appropriate supports and services. Service responses then bring together the required support in a collaborative and coordinated way. This partnership approach encourages less duplication and gaps across programs and systems and enables services to deliver a more integrated response to young people.
For more information about the delivery of youth support services refer to the Young people investment specification.
Support for youth support service providers
Funded youth support service providers have access to:
- a shared client information system Youth Support Client Information System (YSCIS) and YCIS user manual (PDF, 10.2 MB) YCIS user manual (DOCX, 28.7 MB)
- a common assessment tool (PDF, 1.4 MB) common assessment tool (DOCX, 1.2 MB) and a practice guide (PDF, 2.1 MB) practice guide (DOCX, 1.5 MB) outlining the assessment and service delivery expectations.
You can also read our Youth Support and YSCIS frequently asked questions (PDF, 689 KB) Youth Support and YSCIS frequently asked questions (DOCX, 107 KB).
Online training modules
YSCIS online training module 1: Getting started
This video demonstrates how to log in and out of YSCIS and how to access support via the Infoxchange Help Desk and the YSCIS practice guide. This video also demonstrates how to use the persons tab to search profiles and how to find individual client lists.
YSCIS online training module 2: Searching and adding
This video demonstrates how to use the search functionality to find clients, as well as how to add a new person record inclusive of all demographic details. This video provides instructions on how to create eContacts and how to assign key workers.
YSCIS online training module 3: Managing cases
This video explains how to create and close a case, and this also includes instructions on how to create case plans and case notes. Further this video illustrates how to complete the common assessment tool, and this is inclusive of review assessments and outcome assessment visualisation graphs.
YSCIS online training module 4: Managing referrals
This video demonstrates how to review, acknowledge and accept/decline referrals, as well as how to refer clients to a YSCIS service outlet. Further, instructions are provided to create manual referrals, as well as service seeker referrals.
YSCIS online training module 5: For YSCIS Coordinators—Responsibilities and reporting
This video is designed for coordinators in YSCIS as it explains how to create and remove user access, as well as how to unblock users and reset passwords. Instructions are provided to generate respective reports under the reports, lists, financial, referrals, groups and custom tabs.
More information
For further information about youth support services, please contact your closest Child and Family Services regional service centre or send an email to youthinvest@cyjma.qld.gov.au.
Youth Housing and Reintegration Service including After Care Service
The Youth Housing and Reintegration Service including After Care Service (YHARS) provides brokerage services and a coordinated and integrated case management response to the complex needs of young people aged 12 to 21 years who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
YHARS is funded under the National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness (NASHH) and is made up of 2 services:
- YHARS Support Service providing case management support and brokerage—eligible for young people aged 12 to 21 who:
- have exited or are exiting from care after being subject to a child protection order
- are transitioning to the community following a period of sentence or remand in a Youth Detention Centre, and/or
- have been 'sleeping rough' or living in unstable, temporary or inadequate housing.
- YHARS After Care Service providing individualised support through brokerage and case management—eligible for young people aged 17 to 21 who are:
- leaving, or have recently left the care of, Child Safety Services, and
- homeless or at risk of homelessness.
YHARS service providers
View the list of YHARS service providers.
Support for YHARS service providers
The Guidelines for service delivery: Youth Housing and Reintegration Service including After Care Service (PDF, 1.5 MB) Guidelines for service delivery: Youth Housing and Reintegration Service including After Care Service (DOC, 1.8 MB) (the YHARS guidelines) guide funded service providers in the delivery of this service to young people. (Revised October 2017. Note this publication was produced by a former department.)
The YHARS guidelines includes:
- roles and responsibilities—service providers, Child Safety, and Youth Justice
- principles for information sharing
- relationship management
- referral processes and criteria
- principles for case management and accommodation support
- working with different cohorts of young people
- administration of brokerage funds
- recordkeeping and conflict resolution.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence