Reconnect
The Reconnect program uses community-based early intervention services to bring about family reconciliation for young people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, and their families. Reconnect helps these young people improve their level of engagement with family, work, education, training and their local community.
Reconnect breaks the cycle of homelessness, which can begin at an early age, by providing counselling, mediation and practical support to the whole family. Reconnect providers also 'buy in' services to target individual needs of clients, such as specialised mental health services.
Reconnect service providers follow the seven good practice principles:
- accessibility of services
- client driven service delivery
- holistic approaches to service delivery
- working collaboratively
- culturally and contextually appropriate service delivery
- ongoing review and evaluation; and
- building sustainability.
Action research is a key component of the Reconnect program. For Reconnect's early intervention methods to be effective, all services – government and non-government - need to respond to their clients needs using a reflective and improvement-orientated approach to service delivery. For more information, see the Reconnect Action Research Kit below.
Reconnect Publications
- I'm Looking at the Future: Evaluation Report of Reconnect - Final Report (October 2003)
- Longitudinal Survey of Reconnect Clients (September 2003)
- Report of the Reconnect Longitudinal Study: Building Community Capacity for Early Intervention (April 2003)
- Making a Difference - First Report of the Longitudinal Evaluation of Reconnect (October 2002)
- Preliminary Findings: Reconnect Community Study - Stage One (April 2002)
- Youth Homelessness: Case Studies of the Reconnect Program (July 2001)
- Reconnect Data Report (December 2001)
- Reconnect Action Research Kit (October 2000)
- Reconnect Action Research Induction Kit (November 2008)