State funding for WA program helping Aboriginal teenagers transition out of foster care

Like many young adults, Gerome was left to fend for himself by the state system when he turned 18. A new culturally aware program was there to help.

20-year-old Gerome Source: Kearyn Cox

In Noongar language, yorga means girl and nop means boy. Both words were combined to name Western Australia's only Aboriginal foster care agency.

Operating for over 25 years, Yorganop has been working alongside Anglicare WA for the last three years to deliver a trial of the 'Home Stretch' program.

The program, which delivers support and services to First Nations teenagers aged between 18 and 21 who are transitioning out of state care, has received a $37.2 million dollar boost from the state government to become a permanent fixture.

Yorganop building in West Perth. Source: NITV/Kearyn Cox

Noongar Yamatji man Gerome Jones grew up in the WA state care system, spending time in a foster home raising ten other children.

When Mr Jones came of age, he stopped receiving support from the WA Department of Communities and was left feeling out on his own.

Now living in independently in Rockingham, Mr Jones is one of 60 young people in the Home Stretch program.

He says the program helped him turn his life around.

“I feel like the Department of Child Protection has just stopped helping me as I have gotten older, so to have Home Stretch focus on me at this age has really helped me," he said.

“They helped me get back on my feet."

Connecting kids to culture 'vital'

Gerome with his mentor Raina (right) and Yorganop CEO Dawn Wallam.

The program has maintained regular contact with Mr Jones, providing him with invaluable practical support in finding a home and looking for work.

Furthermore, it has helped him in discover more about his cultural identity.

“DCP had not told me much about my family other than what I already knew," he said.

"My Home Stretch mentor got me a family tree. It helps a lot as an Indigenous person.

"It helps you feel more secure about yourself.”

Yorganop CEO, Dawn Wallam told NITV News that connecting kids back to where they come from is a "vital part" of the program.

“At Yorganop we have a cultural unit here who work toward ensuring that all our children are connected to family," she said.

Dawn Wallam

"They know who they are, and who they come from and we connect them up. That is a vital part for kids in care.”

With four decades of experience in the child protection and foster care space, Ms Wallam said over half of the kids in care in the state are Indigenous. 

"It's around 57 per cent of all children in care are Aboriginal across Western Australia," she said.

“At the moment once a kid turns 18, that support cuts off.

"But for kids who join the Home Stretch program, the support to the foster families will continue to get a subsidy that supports."

The program was developed after research found young people leaving state care at 18 were at greater risk of unemployment, homelessness, and crime, and has started taking applications this week.