Rural road trip for Samaritans youth staff
Latest News · 1st July 2021

Rural road trip for Samaritans youth staff

From Gunnedah to Tamworth, two staff from Samaritans youth homelessness services road tripped to several rural towns last month to visit youth services, train staff and distribute supplies.

Nicole Reynolds and Alexanda Roberts work with the Samaritans Homeless Youth Assistance Program (HYAP) helping youth as young as 12 who are homeless or at risk.

The duo did the road trip across one week in a packed car, stopping at Gunnedah, Narrabri, Moree, Tenterfield, Inverell and Tamworth.

They handed out 99 care packages containing essential items like sanitiser, deodorant, hair cut vouchers, opal cards, phones and sim cards, school supplies and hygiene products.

The two spoke very highly of meeting their rural counterparts!

Alexanda Roberts said, “This trip for me, being new to Samaritans, was a great experience and a real eye opener on how different life can be in rural towns. Meeting directly with these rural services also created many great brainstorming sessions about ways to better allocate funding to help more young people in emergency and non-emergency situations.”

Nicole Reynolds said, “We were welcomed with a real community spirit. Some of the towns are so remote and lack real basic needs. It does make me realise how lucky these towns are to have dedicated and supportive workers to help the most vulnerable of people.”

Care packages containing essential items to help young people at risk of homelessness in rural NSW.
Care packages containing essential items to help young people at risk of homelessness in rural NSW.

Samaritans Youth Services offer extensive help to young people aged from 12 - 25 years. This includes support with everything from counselling, accommodation and parenting advice to drugs and alcohol, and relationship support.

Click here to find out more about our youth services or call our friendly team on 1300 656 336.