Neami Moorabbin Youth Residential Recovery Service 

Sammy, Peer Worker – Seaford YRR:

Young people live with us for the year, but throughout that time it’s an opportunity to sort of really build on their foundation for the rest of their life. If that’s what they want to do, it’s what they make of it.

Aida, Service Manager – Moorabbin YRR:

This service is for young people aged 16 to 25. We work mainly on adulting, living skills. And we support them via individual work, 1-to-1, where they identify their goals and needs, and we support them with those. And there’s also a group programme that’s every day.

Tom, Peer Worker – Moorabbin YRR:

It’s very much understanding the needs of the young person – understanding, you know, the history and the past in order to better support them for best outcome.

Nish, Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Worker – Noble Park YRR:

Some people come in wanting to connect more with mental health support. Some people come in wanting to work and study straight away, so it’s a lot about just catering it to the young person.

Oliver, Peer Worker – Hawthorne YRR:

This is an incredibly inclusive space. Our responsibility is to foster a community, not just from staff, but to educate everyone in the house about what it means to accept that everyone’s different and that that’s OK, and that respect goes a long way in this world.

Sammy:

At Neami Seaford, we have units on and off site, so we’re one of the only Y.R.R.’s that have that. We can house up to 10 young people at a time. I think our location attracts people because we’re by the beach. So summer or winter, that can be really healing for a lot of people.

Aida:

Moorabbin location is very convenient. They get a bedroom that’s their own and they get to share the space with one other young person, so there’s two housemates in the unit.

Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing Worker:

I think it’s really cool at the Hawthorn service that we’re all on one level. We’re all one down one big hallway and it helps to feel like a cohesive unit. It’s great that we are so close to a lot of the inner-city support services. It’s just a nice homey place to be.

Nish:

Here at Noble Park, we do have 5 standalone units. Another key thing that a lot of young people love is that we’re sort of walking distance from the train station. Really opens up a lot of facilities and just access to young people and their independence.

Aida:

If you take the leap of faith and come here, you’ll find an extended organisational family that will see you and hear you and will thank you for being here and will feel privileged that you chose to spend the 12 months here. And in return, you will start building your hope and get control of your life back and find out who you are and find out where you need to be.