The History

How did it start?

	David Kosh and Micahel Coffey at YHMD 2006 event in Martin Place

In 2005, some Western Sydney youth workers (including members of Youth
Accommodation Association NSW) decided that they wanted to be more active
during youth week and run an event related to youth homelessness. From this
idea 'Youth Homelessness Matters Day' was born. YAA supported the idea and
endorsed the day. YAA also assisted with some funding for events in 2005.

	YAA Staff held a YHMD event in Martin Place in 2006

YAA presented the idea at a National level and received a positive response.
YHMD was quickly developed into an ongoing campaign, which was endorsed by
the National Youth Coalition for Housing (the national peak body for youth
homelessness and housing issues) and by Homelessness Australia (the peak
body working to prevent and respond to homelessness). In March 2006 NYCH
presented the YHMD campaign to Homelessness Australia and it was endorsed by
youth homeless services in attendance as a official national campaign.

Raising Public Awareness

	On any night in Australia 100,000 people are homless and nearly half of these are under 25. Poster at YHMD event 2008

The logic of Youth Homelessness Matters Day is simple:

Young people are the invisible face of homelessness in Australia as many in
the community believe homelessness is just about older people sleeping rough
or with alcohol and drug related needs and that live on the streets. There
remains little awareness of the difficult situations that young people are
forced to live with on a daily basis. We have to do something about this! As
long as youth homelessness remains 'invisible' in the public imagination
then polices which respond to homelessness will continue to rate low at a
political level, particularly in these current times of risk management and
popularist politics. Hence, Public Awareness raising is an important aspect
of YHMD.

Homeless not Helpless!

	In 2008 the for the second year YAA held a photo exhibition of photos taken by young people experienceing homelessness this year it was held at Carraigeworks at Redfern

Another important aspect of YHMD is that we aim to convey the that young
people who experience homelessness are homeless but not hopeless. That is
why through YHMD we want to celebrate the resilience of young people who
experience homelessness. With the right 'support' and 'accommodation' young
people experiencing homelessness are able to move forward and live their
lives productively.