“The transformation of all our young people is pretty powerful,” Lee said.
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“They’re engaged leaders in their community … we’ve supported a lot of people, we’ve changed a lot of lives.”
Kayla Eldridge was one of the first residents of the Broadmeadows Foyer site, which opened its doors in 2014 in partnership with the Kangan Institute of TAFE. She said the service saved her from homelessness and put her on the path to a university education and a successful career as a clinical trials co-ordinator with a major regional health service.
“Having that affordable and stable accommodation essentially helped me to continue to engage in school,” Eldridge said.
“That kind of set me up to have a really good foundation … to build my future.”
Another past Foyer resident, Phillip Di, has made a life as an e-commerce entrepreneur, and said that as a teenager who liked making money but with nowhere to live, he might have found himself on the wrong side of the law.
“Having that stability, having housing for two years … meant not having the pressure to go down that path,” Di said.
Housing Minister Harriet Shing said the government was determined to support Launch’s Youth Foyer program, but her office did not respond before deadline about funding new sites.
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