The Commissioner for Children and Young People, Leanne McLean, has today released “Nowhere else to go”: Young people’s views of homelessness. This report is the first in the Voices of Young People in the Youth Justice System Project (Voices Project) series of reports to be published throughout 2024.
The Voices Project promotes and empowers young people with recent lived experience of the Tasmanian youth justice system to share their views on the system.
The Voices Project provides critical insights into the system’s impact on children and young people in Tasmania, while informing the Commissioner’s ongoing systemic advocacy to promote, protect, and uphold the rights and wellbeing of all children and young people in Tasmania.
“This report, along with others to follow during 2024, aims to encourage a better understanding of the youth justice system, how it works, how young people experience it, and how it often fails them,” said Ms McLean.
“I’m releasing Nowhere else to go at a time when child and youth homelessness is rightly a topic of great public concern,” she said.
“As is sadly often the case, what has been missing from this important community conversation are the voices and views of young people with direct experience of the youth justice system.”
“There are complex reasons why young people come into contact with the youth justice system and many of these reasons, including homelessness, are beyond their control,” Ms McLean said.
“Although often confronting, listening to, learning from and acting on the insights of young people about the youth justice system, is essential for the development and implementation of good policy and for better outcomes for all participants in the system, as well as the Tasmanian community as a whole.”
“I urge policy and decision-makers, as well as the wider community, to take time to read the views of these young people who bravely shared their views. Now more than ever we need to listen to all children and young people, including our most vulnerable,” she said.
Voices Project reports covering topics including being in and leaving detention will be made available through the Commissioner’s website, here, along with child-friendly resources and a methodology statement.
Website visitors are encouraged to subscribe to receive email alerts when new reports in this series are released.
Media Contact:
Mark Thomas, M&M Communications
0422 006 732