For ten years, a small group of dedicated people have worked quietly in neighbourhoods around Melbourne, carefully reaching out and connecting with vulnerable young people.
Much of what these youth have seen and experienced are things no child should ever be exposed to.
And this trauma can often follow them into adulthood causing more harm and heartbreak.
But the Young Women’s Program (YWP) is helping to change that.
Over the past decade, the YWP has touched the lives of more than 1000 young women including some of the state’s most vulnerable youth who are impacted by sexual exploitation.
Through considered one-on-one outreach, the service run by non-profit St Kilda Gatehouse, supports young people to reconnect with themselves, learn about healthy relationships and develop other life skills to order to heal and grow into strong adults.
Others in the industry see the program as a pioneer in disrupting sexual exploitation, and the devastating, long-term disadvantage it can lead to.
This is because the YWP recognised early on that one-on-one, long-term connection can be a circuit breaker.
The program now has a growing waitlist as reports of exploitation continue to climb.
Confronting numbers
Predators have always been there, that’s not new.
What is new is the increasingly limitless access they now have to young people through the online world.
In the 2023-24 financial year, the AFP recorded close to 60,000 reports of online child abuse – a 45 per cent jump from the previous year.
An AFP commander specialising in child exploitation said the numbers are confronting, but she urges people to keep reporting these incidents to police so they can continue to catch and stop predators.
“As more children and young people access the internet, we have seen an upwards trend in cases of online child sexual exploitation,” Commander Schneider said.
“Every one of these reports contains images and videos of real children being sexually abused or exploited for the sexual gratification of offenders.
Staff at YWP see the impacts of this firsthand: in young people whose inner worlds have been altered forever, their ability to trust shattered as their sense of connection crumbles.
These youth grow into adults.
As adults trying to cope with unhealed trauma, the pain of being let down by people you trust and an unpredictable childhood – comfort may come in things like alcohol, drugs or unsafe relationships, and can have a huge impact on ongoing mental health.
To the outside world, their pain becomes increasingly invisible.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Healing after trauma
Healing is possible after trauma, no matter how dark things seem.
And it often involves the individual reclaiming a sense of their self and recognising what happened was not their fault.
One of the sinister effects of trauma is self-blame, when the reality is that responsibility lies with no one but the abuser.
Over the past decade, the YWP has developed interventions that assist young people to build ‘Protective Factors’ against sexual exploitation.
This improves the chances of a young person growing into a healthy adult while reducing their vulnerability to further exploitation.
St Kilda Gatehouse provides training around these through programs like ARISE.
Established research tells us that Protective Factors include a reliable and positive adult role model in a young person’s life, healthy friendships, connection to community through school, sports or other extracurricular activities, or having somewhere safe to live.
These factors don’t work in isolation.
The YWP’s impact comes through specialised care to build up these safeguards, one-on-one outreach, early intervention group work and social inclusion activities.
The young people in the program receive specialised support in emotional regulation, safe relationships, developing personal skills and learning how to seek help appropriately.
For many of these youth, YWP staff are often the only trusted adults they know.
So it’s not just about teaching them what healthy relationships are, it’s also role-modelling such connections so they can experience the trust, reliability and safety it brings.
An understanding of healthy relationships and boundaries is vital.
As leading trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk writes in The Body Keeps the Score:
“Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives.”
Being a safe adult
If there’s a child or young person in your life, there are always opportunities to make a lifelong impact in the way you demonstrate healthy connection, emotional regulation and good listening.
For young people, especially those in vulnerable situations, a safe adult who’s willing to listen without judgment, who is consistently there and won’t let them down can have a huge impact.
And if you are a parent or carer, it is so important to be interested and involved in what your children are doing.
As kids grow up, there can be a tendency to blame them for their behaviour, and this can impact negatively on them and at times push them away.
The onus is on us as adults, to be gentle with them – to approach them with curiosity, open dialogue and support.
It’s okay to be honest.
‘What’s going on?’
‘What do you need?’
‘You said you met this boy online, but he is 21, and you’re only 14 – how does that make you feel? If your friend was in that situation, what advice would you give them?’
By opening up the conversation, being curious, you can gently guide them and input safety messages without judgement.
You can be a safe space for them to open up and speak their truth.
Children on waitlists
For the past 10 years, the YWP has done inspiring work and it hopes to continue doing this in decades to come.
Early intervention and preventative care has a profound impact socially and economically.
An assessment of the potential savings from Barnardo’s interventions for young people who have been sexually exploited, found that for every $1 spent on disrupting this type of exploitation, between $5 and $11 can be saved in downstream costs.
The YWP has some funding from local government, philanthropy and its fee-for-service offering for young people referred through Child Protection.
However, there are many young people on a waiting list because the program is at capacity – additional funding would help the team expand their wings and reach more young people in the community.
With these additional resources, the YWP can expand into other regions and support more young people in stepping away from abuse and into more empowered lives.
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