The beginning
YHMD began in 2005 as an initiative of youth workers from Youth Accommodation Interagency Nepean (YAIN). YAIN is an interagency of youth services that work with homeless young people in the Nepean Region of Western Sydney. The Youth Homelessness peak of NSW (YAA) was equally concerned regarding the lack of public awareness about young people at risk or experiencing homelessness. YAA was also concerned at the lack of awareness at the political and policy level and its lack of traction on the political/policy agenda.

The Problem
The YAIN youth workers were unhappy with the lack of public awareness about young people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness and wanted to draw some public attention to the issue. As a result the group decided to organise a simple event during youth week that would aim to connect the general public with the issues and needs of young homeless people.


The First Event
The first event was a humble affair, which consisted of a BBQ in a central part of Penrith where people were given a free sausage sandwich and a flyer with some youth homelessness statistics on it and a link to a website. The local media were invited to run local news stories about the event and YAA provided support by way of funding and media assistance. The event included participation from local workers and young homeless people.

Going National
The event was a success and YAA offered to turn the event into a national campaign that would run every year on the Wednesday of youth week. Since then the campaign has grown each year to become a nationally recognised campaign with a broadening interest group. YAA and the National Youth Coalition for Housing (NYCH) are aiming to reach mainstream awareness for the campaign over the next 5 years, similar to the profile of the Red Nose Campaign.

YAA has lead youth photo voice exhibitions and other events to help get the message out there. In 2009 we expect to see more interest from politicians and mainstream media as well as a large youth consultation forum on youth homelessness later in the year to coincide with Homeless Person’s Week.

Essentially Youth Homelessness Matters Day represents an attempt to bring the issues regarding youth homelessness into the public arena as well as providing ways for the general public to become involved in and support future campaigning.