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May 2025
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Inaugural Homelessness Ministerial Advisory Council
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On May 15th, QYHC was pleased to join with peak and sector colleagues alongside health and policy experts in the Inaugural Homelessness Ministerial Advisory Council (HMAC). With Hon Sam O’Connor, Minister for Housing and Public Works and Minister for Youth at the helm, ensuring long term homelessness solutions was at the forefront of discussions.
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QYHC was delighted that place-based responses reflective of the needs of communities across Queensland was front and centre. So too was working together across local and state government and community to ensure a variety of housing models and solutions.
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27th May to 3rd June marks National Reconciliation Week (NRW). NRW offers an opportunity for all Australians to reflect on our shared history, celebrate diverse cultures and achievements, and consider how we can each play a role in advancing reconciliation across the country.
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The 2025 NRW theme, Bridging Now to Next, emphasises the link between Australia's past, present, and future. It encourages all Australians to move forward together, learning from history to build a better future.
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2025 Queensland Reconciliation Awards finalists announced
The Queensland Reconciliation Awards recognise the many inspiring collaborations and projects advancing reconciliation in Queensland.
Finalists in the 2025 awards have been announced across five categories – Business, Community, Education, Health and Wellbeing, and Partnership.
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To learn more about the finalists’ achievements, visit the website.
Recipients will be announced during National Reconciliation Week with the winning initiatives sharing $30,000 in prize money.
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Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month
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Every May, Queensland observes Domestic and Family Violence Prevention (DFVP) Month—an annual campaign dedicated to increasing awareness of Domestic and Family Violence (DFV). It is an opportunity to encourage communities and individuals to speak out against violence and abuse and to empower people to work together towards its prevention.
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Domestic and Family Violence (DFV) is the leading cause of homelessness for young people in Queensland. Those aged 12 to 24 make up nearly 23% of the state's homeless population (ABS Census 2021). DFV and insecure housing are the primary reasons young people aged 15–24 seek help from specialist youth homelessness services (AIHW, 2021). Preventing DFV is arguably the most fundamental social need and significant to the endeavour to end youth homelessness.
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Changing the picture: A national resource to support the prevention of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their children.
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Download the resource here.
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Coercive control is now illegal in Queensland
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From 26 May 2025, coercive control will be a criminal offence. It will be illegal for an adult to use abusive behaviours towards their current, or former, intimate partner, family member, or informal (unpaid) carer with the intention to control or coerce them.
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The criminal offence captures patterns of physical and/or non-physical abuse used to hurt, humiliate, isolate, frighten, or threaten a victim-survivor.
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The criminal offence will carry a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment due to the serious nature of the offence and the harm coercive control can cause victim-survivors.
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Learn more about coercive control laws here.
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Track, Harass, Repeat
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An important resource on attitudes that normalise tech based coercive control from the e-safety commissioner. Read the report here.
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Gender and Disaster Roadmap
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The Roadmaps Web Resource Kit is for use before, during and after emergencies. This is a resource for anyone working in emergency management or who has an interest in the impacts of gender and disaster.
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26th May 2025 marked the 28th anniversary of the tabling of the Bringing Them Home report in the Australian Parliament in 1997 and commemorates Stolen Generations survivors.
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On National Sorry Day we reflect on and recognise the injustices experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were forcibly taken from their families and communities. It is a time to honour the resilience of Stolen Generations Survivors and consider the role each of us can play in the journey toward healing and reconciliation.
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Looking for financial support for your NAIDOC Week event? It could be an Elders’ tent, art show, children’s activities, or something else! Queensland Family and Child Commission are offering sponsorships of $500 for Queensland organisations or community groups to host NAIDOC events.
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To apply, you need to be Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation or community group and be based in Queensland. 10 sponsorships are available.
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To apply: Outline the details of your event and what your sponsorship will be used for. Email fneducation@qfcc.qld.gov.au by 5pm on 12 June 2025
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What changed in tenancy law
on May 1st?
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Changes to tenancy law were passed by Queensland Parliament on 23 May 2024 and will impact your tenancy or rooming agreement under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008 (‘the Act’).
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Some of the changes commenced on 6 June 2024 and 30 September 2024, while other changes are commencing on 1 May 2025.
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A quick snapshot of the key changes starting from 1 May 2025 is available here.
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Download fact sheet here.
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Commission of Inquiry into
Child Safety System
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On 18 May 2025, the Queensland Government announced a Commission of Inquiry into Queensland’s child safety system. The Commission will investigate systemic issues within the state's child safety system and aims to uncover failures and recommend reforms to better protect vulnerable children.
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The Commission will commence on 1 July 2025 and submit a final report to Government by 30 November 2026. It may also make interim reports. The Commission will be led by Paul Anastassiou KC, a former Federal Court Judge and member of the Victorian Bar.
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Youth Homelessness Matters
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The Young and Alone Campaign will begin late June and runs until Homelessness Week 2025. SYHS can still sign up to receive donations. There is likely to be more traction for donations during this period.
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This is a $2.5 million pro bono advertising campaign, running across all states, to raise awareness of youth homelessness with the Australian public and drive donations to support the sector.
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We are urging the public to donate an hour of pay to fight youth homelessness. Young and Alone is the theme for the Awareness campaign. This as an excellent opportunity for the sector to raise funds and further awareness.
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24/7 Intake and support ISAs
for young people
Five Immediate Supported Accommodation (ISA) services are available to enhance service delivery and address regional needs. These feature 24/7 on-site support with two workers at peak service times and 24/7 intake services for improved accessibility.
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These programs are located in the regions of Cairns, Logan, Mount Isa, Moreton Bay, and Rockhampton. In Cairns, where two ISAs operate, each site continues to have a single overnight worker and does not offer 24/7 intake services.
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Young people can contact these services for support at any time on the numbers below:
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- Insync Beenleigh, Anglicare SQ:
(07) 3386 2000
- Mithangkaya Nguli - Young People Ahead - Mt Isa: (07) 4749 0840
- Darumbul – Rockhampton: (07) 4927 5715
- IFYS – Caboolture: (07) 3888 9355
Mobile: 0422 003 971
- Anglicare North Queensland, Cairns:
St Margaret’s – (07) 4033 2678;
St John’s – (07) 4032 4971
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Important Housing Products for Young People
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Youth Essentials
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Youth Housing Essentials supports young people transitioning from government services. It offers tailored brokerage assistance of up to $5,000 per household to address their essential housing needs. It provides access to essential goods and services such as: furniture, white goods, education or work necessities. To access, a young person must be supported by a service provider, support agency or Housing Service. Find out more here.
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Youth Subsidy for CHPs
The Youth Subsidy is available for registered community housing providers to find more opportunities for young people to move out of crisis accommodation into long-term, stable housing.
Read more about the Youth Subsidy here.
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You can read more updates here.
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Renters Relief Package
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The Renters Relief Package has expanded eligibility for a range of products and services to help customers find and apply for a place to rent, help to get a rental, and help to keep their place if they’re having financial difficulties.
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- For more information visit The QLD government website here
- Or get in touch with your local Housing Service Centre Contact here
- People who need housing help can go to qld.gov.au/housinghelp, call 13 QGOV (13 74 68) or the Homeless Hotline on 1800 474 753.  
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Open Doors Youth Service Logan officially opened its doors on April 30 with an Open Day showcasing the service to the local community. Open Doors is celebrating 25 years of supporting LGBTIQA+ Sistergirl and Brotherboy young people by expanding its support services. It continues to be Queensland’s sole youth service specifically for LGBTIQ+ Sistergirl and Brotherboy communities. Starting this Friday 30 May, drop-in sessions are commencing to provide a safe and supportive hangout environment.
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Bright Futures National Symposium
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The Daniel Morcombe Foundation is holding a National Symposium on the Sunshine Coast - From neighbourhoods to devices: Contextual prevention in action
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The 2-day symposium with 40 amazing speakers is only $300 per person and includes the 2 days, and a networking dinner on day 1.
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For information on the Symposium, including the overview and presenters, please click here.
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Tickets are available here.
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REPORTS, ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS
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Anglicare Rental
Affordability Snapshot
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This annual snapshot, released in April demonstrates that Australians are facing a dire rental market particularly so for young people. The 2025 Rental Affordability Snapshot surveyed rental listings across Australia and found that affordability has crashed to record lows. The Snapshot surveyed 51,238 rental listings across Australia and found that:
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- 352 rentals (0.7%) were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage
- 165 rentals (0.3%) were affordable for a person on the Age Pension
- 28 rentals (0.1%) were affordable for a person on the Disability Support Pension
- 3 rentals (0%), all rooms in sharehouses, were affordable for a person on JobSeeker
- No rentals were affordable for a person on Youth Allowance.
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In response to the findings, Anglicare Australia is calling on the Government to return to directly funding and providing housing itself, instead of leaving housing to the private sector. Anglicare Australia is also calling on the Government to wind back landlord tax concessions. Read the report here.
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When governments reshuffle, housing policy can suffer. Here’s how to keep housing policy on track
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While some Australian departments, such as Defence, have remained stable for a long time, responsibility for housing policy has often shifted between various departments across the federal and state governments. These changes lead to fragmented and fractured housing policy, despite strong and ongoing debates about housing policy.
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This resource explores the research evidence on how fathers’ engagement can influence their children’s mental health. It explores the effects of fathers’ warm and responsive parenting on their children’s mental health. This resource also provides insights into how practitioners and services can support fathers to display more warm and responsive behaviours to promote positive mental health in their children.
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You can read the article here.
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Building a secure future for
children and young people
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The Australian Children’s Wellbeing Index, developed by ARACY and UNICEF Australia in 2021, is the nation’s first comprehensive tool for tracking child wellbeing across six interconnected domains of ARACY’s Nest framework.
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Aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Index offers a holistic view of how children are faring in areas such as health, education, safety, identity, and participation. It explores how feeling loved, supported and secure contributes to strong identity, relationships, and safety—while recognising that not all children have these experiences. Many face structural disadvantage, violence, or neglect, leading to long-term negative outcomes.
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The paper presents data and insights to inform policies aimed at ensuring every child in Australia grows up feeling safe, valued, and connected.
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Download the report here.
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Is your organisation Child Safe?
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Every child has the right to feel and be safe at all times. Safety requires active effort. The implementation of child safe standards is happening across Queensland – dates are highlighted in the image. Find out more here.
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Supporting Young People Leaving Care Into Young Adulthood
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The Outcomes Evaluation of Youth CONNECT, a Youth Homelessness Prevention Program
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The evaluation highlights the need for transition from care services to embrace sustained, reflective, collaborative, and person-centred approaches. Key recommendations include embedding inquiry-driven practice to navigate complex challenges, ensuring First Nations staff lead cultural responsiveness and connection efforts, and valuing young people's agency in shaping their post-care journeys.
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Demographia International
Housing Affordability
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In its 21 annual editions, Demographia International Housing Affordability has robustly documented the deterioration of housing affordability. Housing affordability measures necessarily relate the costs of housing to income. Demographia uses the median multiple, a price-to-income ratio that divides the median house price by the median household income
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This annual report assesses housing affordability in 95 major markets across eight nations (Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom and the, United States). The 2025 edition covers the third quarter of 2024.
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You can read the report here.
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Sisters Connecting
Suicide Prevention Program
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young women and girls continue to be over-represented in the criminal justice system and experience significant social and emotional wellbeing needs.
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The Queensland Mental Health Commission is investing $1.05 million to pilot a comprehensive suicide prevention initiative led by Sisters Inside across South-East Queensland and Townsville supporting young, mainly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander single mothers who have been in contact with the criminal justice system.
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The Sisters Connecting program will work alongside young mothers to:
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- support them in their parenting and social and emotional wellbeing needs,
- connect young mothers to culturally appropriate services that support their holistic health needs as well as broader familial pro-social activities.
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The program largely centres on the value of connection, inclusion and cultural healing approaches underpinned by a strengths-based model of care to enable, enhance and support emotional, psychological, spiritual and cultural wellbeing.
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More information is available here.
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Relationships Matter Webinar
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Storytelling is at the heart of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. For tens of thousands of years, the practice has sustained communities, nurtured relationships and highlighted the interconnectedness of child, family and community. Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and caregivers have many stories of resilience, in a practice setting the space to share and reflect on these stories doesn’t always exist. The ability to create this space is crucial to working with these families.
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This strategy outlines a comprehensive approach involving the entire government and community to incorporate trauma-informed practices throughout Queensland. Over the next five years, it aims to foster optimal conditions for individuals, families, caregivers, and communities to access the right support as early as possible. Read here.
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GCBF Funding Rounds 2025
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Two Gambling Community Benefit Fund rounds remain:
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- Round 124: $100,000 Super Round closing 18 July
- Round 125: $35,000 Standard Grant - opening mid-September and closing 31 October
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Find more information here.
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Young Carers Holiday Program
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A Young Carer is any young person who provides care for a family member with a disability, frail age, illness or addiction. If this is you, then join us for a fantastic day of holiday fun. Read more about the holiday program here.
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RESOURCES AND TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
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AOD Resources
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Recorded webinar: Exploring youth engagement and experiences in drug and alcohol treatment.
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Presenting key findings from several research studies on the experiences and outcomes of young people in alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment. The research highlighted that family-based treatment and contingency management approaches were associated with higher treatment completion rates among young people. Youth-specific services were also found to significantly improve completion rates for emerging adults aged 18-24. Watch the webinar here.
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Supporting people who have diverse genders, bodies and sexualities
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People who have diverse genders, bodies, and sexualities are disproportionately impacted by alcohol and other drug use and are a priority population within AOD policy and service settings. This is why Insight and Dovetail have recently developed a toolkit with links to recommended online training, webinars, websites, tools and resources to assist workers to better support this community. View the toolkit here.
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More AOD webinars and resources:
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More information on Dovetail’s resources can be accessed here.
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives on what works in social and emotional wellbeing programs - March, 2025
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Social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) is a holistic concept that is the foundation for mental and physical health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It recognises the importance of connection to Country, culture, spirituality and ancestry. This paper summarises the evidence on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s experiences of a range of diverse programs and looks at what the success factors were for participants in these programs. The paper provides some considerations for practitioners and other professionals.
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New resources from WellMob
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Wellmob has launched a new "Workplace Wellbeing Resource Sheet" aimed at supporting workers and promoting culturally safe workplaces. This resource provides a curated selection of links to practical tools and guidance on various topics, including self-care at work, managing cultural load, racism, addressing isolation, and preventing black burnout. Access resources here.
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The Elephant in the Room
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Elephant Ed’s vision is to build a world where every individual is equipped with the knowledge, skills, and mindset necessary to make informed, healthy, and respectful decisions about consent, relationships, and sexuality. Student workshops, Staff PD and Parent Webinars are available. Find more here.
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