A conversation between sector leaders Louise Giolitto, CEO WACOSS and Michelle Jenkins, CEO Youth Futures
In the face of rising youth homelessness, complex trauma and service fragmentation, one idea cuts through all the noise: we must commit to long-term, trauma-informed support if we want to change outcomes for at-risk young people.
In a recent conversation with Youth Futures CEO Michelle Jenkins, Louise Giolitto, CEO of WACOSS, said it plainly.
“The biggest thing we could do is understand that it’s years in the making, supporting young people and being resourced to do so. This kind of sustained, wraparound care, the kind that doesn't drop away after 12 months or hinge on meeting KPIs, is what enables real transformation. But we need systems and funding frameworks that recognise this.”
The challenge, as both leaders acknowledged, is that young people are too often forced to navigate fragmented systems - housing, education, justice, mental health - none of which are adequately equipped to meet their needs over time, nor trained to work in trauma-informed ways.
Michelle Jenkins put it bluntly. “It’s almost like the joined-up services discriminate against young people by not giving them access to what they actually need.”
For young people who have experienced family rejection, abuse, or identity-based discrimination, the harm is compounded and so is their need for safe, responsive and enduring support systems.
“This is the long-term work of changing attitudes and fully supporting young people,” Louise added. “We need dedicated youth housing and trauma-informed wraparound supports that don’t just stop at a bed for the night.”
Michelle highlighted how Youth Futures is stepping up to meet these challenges in their Community School Hubs. “We have youth workers, social workers and psychologists working with students at our schools just to respond to what we’re seeing daily. It’s not about ticking boxes, it’s about building the right scaffolding around a young person to succeed.”
And that scaffolding must be trauma-informed. It must understand what Louise called “the years in the making”, the cumulative impacts of childhood adversity, family violence, sexual abuse, or disrupted attachment, and how those shape young people’s responses to the world. Trauma-informed care does not ask what’s wrong with a young person, but what’s happened to them, and crucially, what support they need now.
But that care can't be provided if services are short-term, siloed, or underfunded.
This conversation between sector peers is a powerful reminder that collective advocacy and systemic thinking are no longer optional. If we want different outcomes, we need different systems - systems that fund trauma-informed, long-term care and prioritise young people in budget and policy decisions.
“We have to ask, where on the board agendas across the state and around the nation is this conversation happening?” Louise challenged. “If we’re truly committed to systemic change, we need to invest in it, not just leave it to the CEO to carry.”
This is a clear call to action. We must stop asking how quickly we can ‘fix’ young people and start asking how long we’re willing to walk alongside them.
Because real change takes time. And the courage to invest, long-term.