ASeTTS welcomes the Joint Standing Committee on the Commissioner for Children and Young People Report 9.
The report, titled ‘Pathways to Thriving: Enhancing support for humanitarian children and young people in Western Australia’, looked at the circumstances for children and young people who have been directly or indirectly exposed to trauma associated with migration to Australia due to humanitarian crises.
The report is the culmination of a WA enquiry which was tasked with considering:
- The prevalence of ‘migration-related trauma’ among children and young people in WA.
- Existing resources designed to provide support to this cohort of children and young people.
- Potential adverse impacts of any inability to access support resources.
- Models and strategies the State Government could consider mitigating the risk of adverse impacts of migration-related trauma in children and young people.
ASeTTS, along with other service providers, experts, and people with lived experience made formal submissions, and participated in hearings and small focus groups to explore key issues.
As outlined in the Joint Standing Committee Chair’s Foreword “This report hopes to refocus the attention of government policy makers and implementers on this group of very deserving children and young people. By giving them the timely support they require to thrive, we assist them make their most of their individual potential. While this is important for the individual, it also has huge benefits for our broader community.”
The ASeTTS team are proud to have contributed to the inquiry and look forward to meeting with Ministers, government departments and the various organisations we partner with to discuss the issues raised and progress the recommendations highlighted in this report.
“This report acknowledges the important role ASeTTS plays in supporting children and young people from refugee backgrounds to transition to life in Australia and recover from experiences of torture and other forms of trauma. It highlights the breadth, depth and complexity of our work, and conveys the various issues experienced by the young people we support which we raised in our comprehensive submission to the Committee. We welcome the report findings and recommendations – including (but not limited to) improved resourcing of ASeTTS to expand our services and improve our capacity to meet the needs of children, young people and their families from refugee-like backgrounds.” said ASeTTS’ CEO, Merissa Van Der Linden.
ASeTTS is also pleased to announce that it recently completed consultation workshops with young people we support (from 12-18 years of age). The consultation feedback provided by young people reiterates many of the concerns raised in the Joint Standing Committee report. While we are currently finalising our consultation report, we commit to sharing our findings with all interested parties including ASeTTS’ members, members of the committee, relevant Ministers and partner organisations at an upcoming event.
The full report is available here.
To read our submission click here.
