Starting a future that means something to you: outcomes from a longitudinal study of Education First Youth Foyers

In Australia, the standard service offer to young people experiencing homelessness provides an immediate response to housing crisis, but struggles to deliver a pathway to sustainable independent living (AIHW 2018; Homelessness Taskforce 2008; Horn 2018 unpub.). Youth foyers address this gap by providing an integrated approach to tackling youth homelessness, combining affordable accommodation with education, training and employment opportunities and other support services. Education First Youth (EFY) Foyers expand upon the original Youth Foyer concept by prioritising education as key to a sustainable livelihood. As such, EFY Foyers are better understood as a form of supported student accommodation rather than a crisis housing response. The EFY Foyer evaluation finds that the model substantively improves participants' education, employment, housing, and health and wellbeing outcomes, and these improvements are largely sustained a year after exit.

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