Youth Homelessness Matters Day

National Youth Homelessness Matters Day is an annual day which seeks to highlight the issue of youth homelessness in Australia. Started by a group of social advocates who believed that too many young people were moving out of home with no where to go, the day has since grown into a national celebration of young people’s resilience.

In the Northern Territory there are approximately 3947 young people aged between 12 – 24 years who are homeless (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012) and the majority of these young people are living in overcrowded accommodation or couch surfing.

To raise awareness of Youth Homelessness, Anglicare NT held the annual Couch Surfing Event in the Parliament House car park. Attending today was the Hon Peter Styles Minister for Young Territorians, Lauren Moss MLA and the Deputy Lord Mayor Alderman George Lambrinidis.

The couch surfing event was a huge success with fantastic attendance by young people and a range of agencies. Special thanks to the City of Darwin, NT Thunder and many other agencies for support in running this event.

Congratulations to all teams who decorated their couches and participated today. In the end the team from SEDA won the event. Congratulations SEDA!