Berry Street Web Docs Berry Street Annual Report 2011 | Page 19

Our So
u
t
h
Eastern
Region
Our South Eastern services are recognised
for their particular expertise in engaging,
sticking with and advocating for young
people with the most complex needs
and challenging behaviours. We were
fortunate that Megan Pollard moved from
an Area Manager role in Take Two to take
on the Regional Director role in the
South East.

Highlights included:

• One of the outcomes we are hoping
from the Inquiry into Protecting
Victoria’s Vulnerable Children is that
it will recognise that community
organisations like Berry Street are
better placed to do the case
management of children and young
people and their families who have
been placed on an order through the
Children’s Court. Our Intensive Case
Management Service (which we also
provide in Gippsland and Hume) works
intensively with the most challenging
young people in the region, mostly
with reasonable success. Our skilled
and committed staff ‘stick’ with these
young people for as long as they
are needed to gain their trust – the
essential first step in healing. Over the
past year, we worked with 172 young
people, aged from nine to 25

• Our school at Noble Park celebrated
its eighth birthday, with 27 students
participating in individualised
education plans. We commenced
implementing our new Model of
Education with nine inter-related
domains, which we developed in
conjunction with the Youth Research
Centre at Melbourne University. Our
Education Support Service helped
another 109 at-risk students across the
region connect to school and access
tutoring or other help they need to
access appropriate education. We
were delighted that our success
was recognised by a grant from the
Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development to provide
professional development for teachers
in education case management
and an increased capacity to work
directly with more young people
• Following a review of our foster care
program, we initiated a number of
changes to ensure that carers were
getting the support that they need
and the direct work with children and
young people was transferred to our
case management team. This is a
different model from our three other
foster care programs, which will be
evaluated

• Our nine residential units looked after
45 young people, many of whom
could not be managed successfully
by other agencies. We were pleased
that our expertise was recognised by
the Department of Human Services in
the Eastern Region, where we are now
running some residential care and
case management

*

Page 17

*