Gagan Kaur is a team leader for the casework team with Youth Off The Streets, an Australian youth services organisation. Since 1991, Youth Off The Streets has delivered a range of wraparound supports for young people. These include homelessness and housing services, independent high schools, alcohol and other drugs counselling, youth justice support, life skills programs, cultural support and community outreach, among other services.

Prior to joining Youth Off The Streets in 2016, Gagan has worked with children and young people in early intervention programs, as well as with refugees and asylum seekers. In this conversation, we discuss her experiences and views on supporting young people in need over this period. If you would like to learn more about some of the youth support organisations in Australia, please visit the links below.

Resources:

Youth Off The Streets

Mission Australia

Yfoundations

Homelessness NSW

Timestamps:

[1:05] - Gagan's career journey

[2:23] - An overview of casework

[3:56] - Career highlights

[5:11] - Differences between working with refugees and young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness

[7:12] - Youth Off The Streets

[10:52] - Information sharing between youth support organisations

[12:26] - Team leader for the casework team

[15:32] - Differences between youth refuge work and casework 

[21:16] - Responsibilities of the team leader 

[24:38] - Has your role become more challenging over time?

[26:40] - Responding to the challenges of COVID-19

[29:30] - Will youth support fundamentally change in the face of COVID-19?

[31:48] - When will we see the impact of COVID-19 becoming more visible?

[33:09] - Ryan, you fool

[33:22] - The high level change needed to ease this impact

[35:11] - Is there anything that young people can do to support this?

[37:33] - Resources for further learning

[38:48] - A personal story of growth

[44:16] - An ongoing relationship with the young people

[45:53] - Giving back to the community

[48:10] - Getting through lockdown