Expansion is the Aim - The Full Story

After months of consultation and internal discussion, Youth Insearch is proud to outline the proposed strategic expansion plan for the YI weekend program.

There have been some serious concerns for some time about the number of young people being turned away from each program. The demand for recent programs has been so high that as many as 50 young people have been turned away from a single program. YI estimate that over 600 young people are turned away each year, simply due to the fact that there is not enough funding to add more programs to the schedule.

As you can imagine, YI receives many requests from areas not currently serviced, but after detailed consultation, YI have determined that our first responsibility is to the areas that we currently service and therefore our strategic expansion plan is designed to meet the existing demand, before we consider expanding to new areas.

Youth Insearch CEO Tim Gledhill explains, “Within our existing regions there is an enormous demand due to the success of the program and the fact that we operate in areas of high need. We also have great support networks and relationships that assist with the coordination of these programs, therefore it makes sense to utilise the available resources and attempt to meet the demand”

It is estimated that should the plan be fully implemented that an additional 800 young people per annum will access the program across NSW, Victoria and Queensland. With a strong operational structure already in place, Youth Insearch is in a position to efficiently expand to ensure more young people have access to the program. “The current cost per young person to attend a Youth Insearch program is currently around $1,500, by expanding within the areas currently serviced the additional cost per young person is only $558”.

The total cost of the proposed expansion is $446,000 per annum and Youth Insearch will instigate fundraising initiatives and work with State and Federal Government to try and raise these funds. Although it is a lofty target Youth Insearch is focused on achieving this goal, “Whether it takes 12 months or 10 years, this level of expansion will be our aim”.

Summary of Proposed Expansion Plan

Victoria - The addition of another Community Coordinator to assist Sharon and in time, an extra 4 weekend programs (cost $163,400)

Queensland – The addition of another Community Coordinator, specifically for the Toowoomba region to ease the current load on Megan and Ben. In time, we also aim to add up to another 6 weekend programs within Queensland (cost $136,400)

NSW – The addition of another Community Coordinator for the far north coast region (Coffs Harbour to the Tweed) and in time up to 6 additional programs (cost $146,400)