Couch surfing students: the Yarra Ranges youth homelessness prevention project

The Couch Surfing Secondary Students (CSSS): Yarra Ranges Youth Homelessness Prevention Project has developed out of a research partnership between Anchor Youth Services, the Outer Eastern Local Learning and Employment Network (OELLEN), Swinburne University and the University of Western Australia Centre for Social Impact. The partnership emphasises the cross-sector nature of youth homelessness as falling in both the educational and community services contexts. Anchor is one of two youth homelessness agencies in the region that supports the Yarra Ranges. OELLEN aims to develop sustainable partnerships between schools and industry to support the retention, attainment and career pathways of at risk young people. The study investigates the experiences of, and perceptions toward, couch surfing secondary students in the Yarra Ranges Shire. It seeks to provide evidence to better understand how to intervene earlier rather than later, and to ensure that services, like Anchor and OELLEN, are more able to effectively support the needs of schools who are at the ‘coalface’ of early stage homelessness in youth.