Through grief and growth

How a KUC studio helped this Barkindji boy heal

Joe was just 16 when his loving father died suddenly due to illness, uprooting his life and his safety net.

The young Barkindji boy had always had a close relationship with his dad, who supported him unconditionally as Joe experienced gender dysphoria and questioned if he should identify as female. While other family and community members didn’t always understand Joe, his dad did, and provided him with the safety to explore his true self.

Following his dad’s death, Joe was placed into emergency care with his paternal aunt. But his aunt was already caring for four other family members in her small three-bedroom house. The home was pushed to the limit by overcrowding, and Joe’s family relationships strained under the pressure. He had no space to process the trauma and grief of losing his dad. 

This transition was a critical moment in Joe’s path to his future. 

Connection to kin and community are vital to protecting the cultural, mental and physical safety of First Nations young people when they are placed into care. However, overcrowding is one of the leading causes of youth homelessness. 

More than 36% of homeless young people are of First Nations descent. 

Without intervention, Joe was at risk of becoming part of this statistic, or being placed with non-Aboriginal foster carers and severing his connection to culture.

Kids like Joe are the reason we started our partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency (VACCA), to ensure our First Nations young people receive the culturally-centred care and safe living spaces they need to thrive. 

When Joe was referred to the VACCA Permanent Care team to assess his long-term care and accommodation, his case manager knew something had to be done. They reached out to Kids Under Cover, and we placed one of our custom-designed, portable studios in the family’s backyard.

The studio didn’t just provide Joe with physical space – it provided him with mental and emotional space to grieve in private, process his trauma, and continue his gender exploration. 

His aunt watched proudly as Joe built a strong sense of ownership, self-determination and independence, decorating his studio to express his Aboriginal identity and his connection to the LGBTQIA+ community. He advocated for his wants and needs when decisions were being made about his future, and re-engaged with his education.

Alongside his Kids Under Cover studio and support, Joe was connected to wrap-around services, including a psychologist, tutor, and sistergirl peer mentor. These support workers all visited him in the safety of his own space, where he was able to be himself freely.

Without his studio, Joe’s future could have been different. He could have become one of the 11,700 young people homeless each night in Victoria. But thanks to our early intervention program and partnership with VACCA, today he is prepared to leave care with the life skills, resilience and support he needs to build the future he deserves.

We want to create 450 more stories like Joe’s through Target 450.

Stories of hope, connection to culture, and the unlimited potential of young people when they are given the opportunity to thrive.

We already house 240 First Nations young people as part of our studio program. Through Target 450, we want to deliver 200 more studios to house 300 more kids like Joe. But to do this, we need government funding.

Will you help us? Together, we can more than double our impact for First Nations young people.

Here’s how you can help:

• Share this blog on your socials
• Become a Target 450 advocate and share a message of hope here
• Donate to Target 450 More, our community-funded goal to go beyond government funding

Or, read more about Target 450 and our success stories – starting with Liam.