Youth Homelessness has been a problem in Australia for many years now. Young people become homeless for many reasons. The most common reasons are related to family or relationships problems with parents or siblings, domestic violence, substance abuse or financial difficulty.

In 2010, it was discovered that over 32,000 youths below the age of 25 are homeless. Of this 32,000, approximately half are “Couchsurfing”. Couchsurfing is a form of homelessness that involves people crashing on another person’s couch. They may be a friend or a total stranger. While this doesn’t sound bad, as there are many others living on the streets, research has shown that Couchsurfing can be just as unhealthy as living on the streets. Recently, it has lead to forms of prostitution in boys and girls to pay for their spot on the couch.

Research has also shown that a majority of the youths staying on couches eventually become homeless. This means that if this problem is not solved soon, there will be an enormous number of homeless adults in twenty years as all those staying on couches will be forced onto the street for overstaying at a friends or for being kicked out for the same reasons that first turned them towards Couchsurfing in the first place.

Luckily, the OASIS Youth Support Network is trying to end Couchsurfing through their program, “The Couch Project”. This is a project aimed at raising awareness and funds to help put an end to Couchsurfing and ultimately tackle the problem of youths living on the street at an earlier stage by stopping this step of Couchsurfing. They believe that if enough awareness is built up about Couchsurfing it will become less prominent and a more concerning problem in society. The project involves participants being sponsored to sleep on a friend’s couch so that theycan discover the lack of privacy and unpleasant conditions that these youths put up with on a daily basis.

Newington College has had a long-lasting relationship with OASIS, as it is Kelynack House’s charity. It is an important charity for the boys as it teaches them that there are many people their age who are not as fortunate as they are. Every year boys take part in a number of charity events that the school does in association with OASIS, such as the senior woodwork students making beds for the Youth Support Centre or the “Sleep-Rough” initiative which involves the boys sleeping outside on the school grounds to learn how uncomfortable it is.

This term, Newington will be participating in the OASIS Couch Project, but not by sleeping on a friends couch. On Back to Newington Day, there will be a number of couches set up around the various ovals to view the games in comfort. You will be able to watch from one of these luxury seats by donating a small amount towards the Couch Project. On these couches there will also be more information about  Couchsurfing and how you can help more.

David Burley (11/KL)