From the Office of the Minister for Youth & Community Services

Wednesday, July 7, 1999.

TIERS PROGRAM A STEP UP FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN CARE - NAPTHINE

A new residential and educational service for young people in care has opened a modern new chapter in caring for neglected and abused children, the Youth & Community Services Minister, Dr Denis Napthine said today.

Officially opening the Transitional Integrated Educational & Residential Service (TIERS) for MacKillop Family Services, Dr Napthine said the program was one of the final outcomes of the redevelopment of St Vincent’s Boys Home, which opened in 1854.

TIERS is providing three residential units, each catering for five young people, in Moonee Ponds, Carlton and Elwood.

The next stage in the TIERS redevelopment is a state-of-the-art, purpose-built transitional learning centre for up to 20 children and teenagers, to be built in the western suburbs.

Dr Napthine said the Victorian Government has committed more than $6 million to the TIERS project, including $1.4 million per year in running costs.

“The placement of children in community-based settings such as the TIERS residential units reflects the Government’s strong commitment to individualised planning, the maintenance of family connections and the integration of quality services,” he said.

“The program is targeted at children and teenagers who have significant social, emotional and behavioural problems as a result of neglect or mistreatment.

“The TIERS program is the culmination of a long line of succession, stretching back to when St Vincent’s Boys Home in South Melbourne opened as an orphanage in 1854.

“It went through many developments under the Christian Brothers, reflecting the changing welfare responses to the needs of children.

“Most recently as a residential facility known as Rice Youth Services, it represented Victoria’s last example of accommodating children in group care on a large campus.

“As TIERS, it will be a step into the future in terms of services for young people in care,” Dr Napthine said.

Dr Napthine said the Victorian Government boosted its services to vulnerable children and teenagers in the May 4 State Budget.

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The Budget provided an additional $4.9 million a year to expand and improve protection and placement services for vulnerable children and adolescents.

The Government also announced an initial $1.4 million for the Strategy for Health and Development of Children and Adolescents - a new program that specifically targets the health and development of high risk children and teens, with funding building progressively over four years to a $9 million per year commitment.

The new strategy caters for a broad range of initiatives from prevention and intervention at infancy and early childhood through to intensive treatment for the most at risk group of adolescents in Victoria.

Initiatives in the strategy include funding to ensure a consistent approach in the non government sector to the risk assessment of abused and neglected children, and a program to identify and address their health and developmental needs.

NOTE:Time & venue of Dr Napthine’s launch: - 10am today (Wednesday), TIERS residential unit, 86 Maribyrnong Rd. Moonee Ponds.

Media inquiries:

Graeme Walker, Human Services Department Media Unit (03) 9616 7296.

Genevieve Atkinson, Press Secretary (03) 9651 5799.

Internet:

(F:press99/ Tiers /gw/5.7.99)