Our
history
We are proud of our history of leadership in Logan, documented in this timeline.
On 1 January 1981, Logan was declared a city. The administration building on Wembley Road was opened in February 1981.
The Christian Brothers in collaboration with Logan residents established a community based secular organisation in Kingston, supporting “at risk” young people and their families with accommodation, unemployment and children’s court matters. Counselling was also available.
Our community development work included juvenile justice and truancy. Juvenile justice work with young people and their families led to the start of YFS and the truancy work resulted in the start of the Centre Education Programme (now an Edmund Rice Flexi School). Pictured on the right is Mick Devlin, who founded Youth and Family Services. Mick was the organisation’s coordinator/manager until 1987.
YFS provided this accommodation until the early 1990s.
Youth and Family Service (Logan City) was recognised as an incorporated association. We provided housing and homelessness assistance.
Pam joined YFS in 1987 and led the organisation until her departure in 1989.
Youthlink offered activities for young people, developed to address youth unemployment (Pixies Catering), homelessness and links to education.
Funding for this service commenced, signalling the start of the Logan Youth Legal Service.
YFS was visited by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissioner Brian Burdekin. Brian commissioned this report, which made recommendations about children having the right to receive adequate housing, to enjoy special protection and to be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation.
Until 1993, YFS sponsored the health bus, offering contraception and conception counselling, and STI and HIV screening and counselling.
The 1990s
The property was extended in 1993.
Family and relationship programs included adolescent, parent mediation and family counselling services. They continue today, and are now known as Step by Step (Thriving Young Families).
YFS takes on the management of the Logan Legal Advice Centre, which moved to our 4 Rowan Street premises. Also, the domestic violence and Survival Sex programs for young people
The program continued until 2006.
WAVSS formed its own organisation so that YFS could focus on working with male perpetrators.
Through SOYA, YFS offered young people 17 long-term housing units at 35A Defiance Road, Woodridge. We relinquished management of the property in June 2018.
Logan Youth Connections (Community Connections) helped post-school young people with multiple disabilities. It amalgamated with YFS in 1996.
Logan River Valley Housing Tenancy (previously Logan Hotline) amalgamated with YFS. This program continued, under the name Logan Tenancy Advice and Advocacy Service, until 2013.
Through M-Power, YFS delivered an early intervention mental health program for young people until 2014.
New millennium 2000 – 2009
Our RTO status continued until 2006.
In its six-year lifespan, this program offered paid work to a number of unemployed people to develop the Eagleby Wetlands.
TASK is a car wash and gardening enterprise initiated by a YFS disability client. It continues to operate today.
YFS accepted responsibility to manage OSSCA INC based at Moorooka. We managed the organisation until 2005.
Our disability clients went above and beyond by creating a wonderful mosaic celebrating 100 years since Australia’s federation. The mosaic remains proudly displayed in the front courtyard of our office at 376 Kingston Road.
The Needle and Syringe Program was previously unfunded.
Pictured is a resource created for young people by the Logan Youth Legal Service in 2002. It helped them understand their responsibilities under the law.
Tony was one of the longest-standing Youth and Family Services managers. He started in the position in 1991. Pictured is Tony (front row, blue shirt) at his farewell in 2002. Cath Bartolo (front row, red shirt) assumed the role of YFS chief executive on Tony’s departure in 2002.
These programs included: Job Placement Employment and Training Youth Engagement Service (a school-based program for young people disengaged from the early years of high school; it was funded by Community Renewal).
Through sport, the Friendship Games helped connect young refugees to assist with their physical, social and emotional wellbeing.
YFest was a festival for young people, organised by YFS.
Through this program, youth and social workers began to provide confidential counselling to gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersexed, transgendered or questioning young people aged 16 to 19 years.
PHaMs is a mental health recovery support program.
ReSolv was a volatile substance misuse program targeting young people, 12 to 17 years of age. The program amalgamated with YouthLink in 2015.
The program was initiated with the support of the Logan District Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Aboriginal Corporation for Elders. It operated until 2015.
This program provided intensive case-management assistance for people who faced barriers to employment. It ended in 2013.
Next Step was a social inclusion initiative that provided opportunities for government, non-government and the community to work in a more coordinated manner to address the needs of young people. It continued until 2012.
LPCSI focused on building the ability of mainstream services to support people with disabilities. The program ended in 2014.
We celebrated by holding a party in Rowan Park. More than 1,000 people joined the celebrations including clients, neighbours, politicians, funding bodies, local community organisations, current and past staff.
By 2009, the population of Logan City reached 260,000 and reflected more than 160 cultures. In that year, YFS expanded to deliver more than 40 programs in five Logan sites, employing more than 130 staff. During the 2009-10 financial year, YFS supported more than 5000 people who sought advice, information, counselling, group work and services.
2010 – 2019
IRAS was launched as our ‘no wrong door’ service, for walk-in and telephone enquiries. It’s now called YFS Connect.
YFS opened its new, purpose-built building at 358 Kingston Road, Slacks Creek for disability programs.
The Respectful Relationships program helped young people aged between 13 and 24 years. The program was delivered through Woodridge High School, Marsden High School, Logan TAFE, Multilink and YFS.
YFS held its yearly staff development day by staging the Healthy Headspace Conference. Other local organisations attend as well.
The 2012-2014 plan was the first to detail our commitment to reconciliation and closing the unacceptable gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other Australian’s health and wellbeing.
The enterprise concluded in 2016.
By 2012, 148 paid staff and 42 volunteers were operating from our sites across Logan.
Home visits and education sessions helped people in Logan, Brisbane, Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley to better manage their energy at home.
Income-managed clients learned new skills to manage their money effectively.
In its first year, our social enterprise e-waste recycling initiative processed 10,000kg of equipment.
YFS initiated this program for primary school children in partnership with The Salvation Army Communities for Children and five local primary schools.
And we became a company limited by guarantee. Previously, we were an incorporated association.
Macquarie Bank and Westpac Bank became sponsors of a number of our social enterprises.
Our staff heard from keynote speakers Noel Pearson and Wesley Enoch at our annual staff conference.
We were pleased to begin sharing our Slacks Creek premises with the Logan District Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, including the Murri Men’s Group.
Our two community legal centres, Logan Youth Legal and Logan Legal Advice Centre, amalgamate to become YFS Legal.
We introduced Get Ready to help prepare people with disabilities and their families for the NDIS in the Logan, Redlands and Gold Coast areas.
YFS came into existence soon after Logan’s formation and in 2015, we celebrated 30 years of service with a park-side birthday party. Watch our YFS beginnings – 30 years of wisdom video to find out more. You’ll hear from our founder Mick Devlin!
Through this office, we provided people in the Browns Plains and Beaudesert regions with access to our Intensive Family Support Program. The office closed in 2018 when we opened our Jimboomba centre.
In its first nine months, our youth-led violence prevention initiative generated more than 300 social media posts, attracted almost 1,200 Facebook likes, and reached about 3,000 young people face-to-face through more than 15 events in schools and communities.
Our YouthLink team worked in an expanded catchment area, taking in people in the Redland City including the Bay Islands who need intensive support to gain the skills for independence and to avoid disadvantage.
We reshaped our financial services area to create YFS Connect, a hub bringing together services that help people deal with financial crisis and learn how to manage money for the future. YFS Connect incorporates our intake and referral service (formerly IRAS), our financial counsellors, Money Smart financial capability workers and emergency relief services.
We were very pleased to welcome Tenants Queensland’s QSTARS tenancy advice workers to share our Slacks Creek premises.
ParentsNext is a Federally-funded program for parents of young children to prepare to enter the workforce. We help parents define career goals, and make and implement plans to achieve them.
We supported people using our disability programs to begin planning for the NDIS, employing a worker to help with pre-planning.
More than 300 people did almost 35,000 hours of work experience at Substation33, learning how to function in a workplace as well as how to disassemble electronic goods and use 3D printers.
Queensland Police Service Logan and YFS Ltd entered into a new and unique partnership agreement, Project HERA. A YFS worker began to be co-located with the Logan District Domestic and Family Violence Unit to provide prompt assessment, referral and support to those affected by domestic violence.
YFS joined Federal, State and local government, businesses, organisations and services to take up the challenge to put an end to domestic and family violence. As part of the campaign, the Rotary Clubs of Logan, Loganholme and Beenleigh funded the production of a pocket Quick Help Guide, outlining sources of support and information for Logan people experiencing violence.
When we opened a new office at 372 Kingston Road Slacks Creek, we were pleased to include co-location space for the Logan District Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Elders.
Involving seven additional schools in 2016, The Club worked with 397 vulnerable students to help them improve their social skills and ability to thrive in the school environment.
The Done with Debt campaign helped prevent Logan residents getting into debt through rental of appliances, computers, phones or furniture. Billboards, bus shelter ads and shopping centre ads were displayed across Logan promoting the message “easy lenders can make life tough”.
Substation33 partnered with Logan City Council to manufacture flood warning signs for low-lying road crossings. The signs proved themselves during Tropical Cyclone Debbie in early 2017, when no motorists attempted to drive through floodwaters at the nine crossings where solar signs were installed.
The improved information sharing between organisations greatly increased our collective ability to support victims of high-risk perpetrators to achieve safety, and to hold perpetrators accountable.
We helped Substation33 volunteers move into paid work once they gained experience and skills with us. We also worked with clients in our case management teams, particularly our PHAMs mental health recovery service. They joined our ParentsNext team to improve work readiness of people facing significant barriers to employment.
This service helped public housing tenants with young children identify and achieve aspirations for their families. We developed the approach in consultation with Logan Together and the Department of Housing and Public Works.
YFS became the only Queensland organisation funded to trial Functional Family Therapy – Child Welfare, an evidence-based program developed by New York Foundling LLC that works with complex, high needs families at risk of entering statutory child protection services.
ASC began working alongside statutory workers to assist with assessment of family functioning and identification of appropriate support services for families with children at risk of entering child protection.
We launched Spark, an exciting initiative for people in Logan public housing who want brighter futures, and the program is now taking referrals. Spark lights the way and connects people with opportunities to work, learn, volunteer or start their own micro business.
Recognising population growth in the western Logan area, we opened a new campus in Jimboomba. Our Functional Family Therapy-Child Welfare, Intensive Family Support, and Beaudesert Domestic and Family Violence Service for Women and Children teams are based there.
We were proud to partner with the Healing Foundation to host the Logan Apology event, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. Logan Elders and community members, elected representatives and school students joined to share stories, songs and messages of reconciliation and hope.
Substation33 made significant progress in its innovation, developing solar-powered charging units in conjunction with PowerWells and water-quality testing meters in a partnership with Griffith University. Its flood-warning-sign partnership with Logan City Council continued to grow.
The Not Now, Not Ever cinema advertisement featuring Logan identities, including rugby league great Corey Parker, speaking out against domestic violence won the not-for-profit category in the 2018 Safe City Logan awards. The advert was a joint effort between The Centre for Women & Co, local businesses, service clubs, Queensland Police Service, Logan City Council and the Queensland Government.
We introduced a Trauma Responsive Practice Framework to support our staff to understand the impacts of trauma on our clients. Developing a deep understanding of trauma is helping our staff support people to create real change in their lives.
Working with Logan Together, the Community Service Industry Alliance, the Australian Centre for Social Innovation and homeless families themselves, we designed Thriving Families, which the YFS Board funded as a demonstration project. Thriving Families brings together family coaches and a housing specialist in an integrated team to help homeless families move from crisis to thriving. There is irrefutable evidence that a supportive housing approach – combining affordable housing and tailored support – supports long-term change.
We stopped providing community participation programs for people with a disability and our Personal Helpers and Mentors service (PHaMs) for people with mental health issues ended. We helped our clients to access the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) where possible and transition to other supports if they were not eligible. We were sad to farewell these clients and staff, some of whom had been with YFS for more than 20 years.
Our Financial Counsellors tried means of helping people manage their money better, including ways to reach people who find it hard to gain help. Our inaugural Deal with Debt Day at the Logan Entertainment Centre in March brought together 20 organisations, from energy companies to Centrelink. We also partnered with Logan’s largest Facebook group, Mums’n’bubs Logan, to offer live Q&A sessions to the group’s 22,000 members.
We embedded our financial counselling and capability services into our front door, YFS Connect, to further enhance our responses to homelessness and financial crisis. YFS Connect now combines our intake, advice, referral, money management, emergency relief and financial counselling services. This integration has improved the effectiveness, efficiency and targeting of our services.
We linked with the youth service Open Doors to support their work with LGBTIQ+ young people in our region. Open Doors is providing outreach in Logan from a base at YFS, linking with young people who are struggling with gender, sexuality or other issues. Open Doors also delivered LGBTIQ+ Sistergirl and Brotherboy training to our staff.
Research commissioned by the Australian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) was released, showing R4Respect’s unique peer-to-peer model, which empowers young people as leaders and agents of change, works. The research provided evidence of the power of young leaders to sway negative attitudes to violence against women among their peers. Also, the team’s peer-led interventions were proven effective in engaging young people on sensitive topics.
Our collaborations with First Nations community groups continued to strengthen, with 10 partnerships operating, including closer relationships with Mununjali, ATSICHS and our long-term partners, the Logan District Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Elders. Also, we gained a better understanding of the experiences of our First Nations staff, which has set the groundwork for us to improve our recruitment and support of First Nations peoples.
We endorsed the national Family Matters position paper to create a national commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. First Nations children continue to experience levels of social disadvantage that are completely unacceptable.
We were selected to partner with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service, the Department of Youth Justice and Queensland Police Service to deliver the Community Youth Response and Diversion program in Logan. Coupled with more intensive work to prevent and address causal and related factors like family dysfunction, youth homelessness and solvent misuse, this program has the power to change the trajectory for young people on the brink of serious legal and life problems.
Our youth-led peer-to-peer respectful relationships education strategy, R4Respect, took out a gold award in the 2019 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards. Federal Minister for Home Affairs Hon Peter Dutton MP announced the win at Parliament House in Canberra.
Our Substation33 crew won the Minister’s Award for the Environment at the 2019 Banksia Sustainability Awards and the Community Group of the Year award at the 2019 Queensland Community Achievement Awards.
YFS Legal began hosting UQ and QUT law students who are learning from our lawyers how to work with people on legal matters. The QUT students work for our Family and Civil Law Clinic and the UQ students work for our Culturally Competent Criminal Law Practice Clinic.
Candice Hughes of YFS Legal won the Women in Law Indigenous Lawyer of the Year Award in late 2019. This was a well-deserved honour for a strong advocate and great contributor to YFS, the Logan community and First Nations people.
2020 and into the future
We joined Logan City Council and 30 Logan businesses and community groups in supporting Not Now, Not Ever in Logan to blanket the major shopping streets of Woodridge, Beenleigh and Jimboomba with street banners. A vibrant social media campaign uniting the local community to say no to domestic and family violence supported the banners. Logan retailers and community centres put up posters, circulated postcards and shared social media posts that encouraged everyone in Logan to take action.
We launched what is believed to be an Australian first: a program run by young men for young men and boys, helping them understand the line between what is healthy and what is harmful in relationships. Called Men4Respect, the program aims to influence men’s attitudes towards relationship violence from a young age, redefining what it means to “be a man”.
The COVID-19 pandemic created significant challenges for vulnerable people throughout Logan. We were at the forefront of responses, working with Logan City Council, the Queensland and Federal Governments and other organisations to provide the safety nets needed for locals in hardship.
At start of the outbreak, we pivoted by establishing the Logan Response Hotline and refurbishing PCs for school students who don’t have a device, so they could learn at home. For the hotline, we united with Logan City Council, Lighthouse Care, the State Emergency Service, food charity OzHarvest, Givit, Share the Dignity, and businesses and Logan residents combined to deliver care packages to Logan people doing it tough as a result of the pandemic. Councils and community groups from other areas called us asking how we were able to do it. To help as many Logan school students as possible to learn online while staying home, our Substation33 crew attracted the support of Logan City Council and Logan Together to refurbish hundreds of computers.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw changes in our domestic violence work. Staff of our Responsible Men, Project Hera and Beaudesert Domestic and Family Violence teams mobilised to enhance our capacity to respond. Our DV teams maintained their focus on clients, never shutting their doors.
Launching Next Step Plus has given us an important opportunity to respond to a very vulnerable group of young people: those who have experienced out of home care. Many of our clients fall into this cohort now, but Next Step Plus brings us a specialist team with a strong understanding of the impacts of out of home care and the ways to support successful transitions to independent adult life.
Our support for people in Yarrabilba and Jimboomba expanded, with YFS Connect introducing emergency relief and financial capability services in the area and YFS Legal offering a co-located Domestic Violence Lawyer at Centre 4 Women, Beaudesert and YFS Jimboomba.
The Queensland Government inducted the youth-led violence prevention program R4Respect into the Queensland Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Honour Roll.
The Honour Roll also recognised the community campaign Not Now, Not Ever in Logan, which YFS helps coordinate, alongside local businesses, individuals and organisations for their work in making Logan a safer place for everyone.
Our Men4Respect program won a 2020 Logan City Council Safe City Award in November for helping make Logan more welcoming, inclusive and safe.
The program backs young men to challenge violence-supportive attitudes and actions.
We launched the YFS First Nations Cultural Framework.
The framework sets out our continuing commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the actions we will take, and how we will assess our progress over time.
We launched an evaluation of our Thriving Families demonstration project.
The evaluation found that the approach worked for two reasons: the integration of specialist and general supports, and the family resourcing approach that backs the family to set and pursue their own priorities.
The YFS Theory of change sets out our understanding of change for vulnerable people living in Logan and surrounds and how we contribute to change in their lives.
Hand Heart Pocket funded a two-year integration project to combine case management for young families with specialised supports including employment, housing, counselling, social connections and safe relationships.
Family Housing Specialists were embedded in the YFS families' programs. The Family Housing Specialists support families with housing solutions and sustaining tenancies.
The Logan Advance to Zero campaign is an initiative to end homelessness and rough sleeping in the Logan region through a coordinated, collaborative and person-centred approach.
The Home and Healthy program assists people to navigate systems such as housing, physical health care, drug and alcohol, mental health and social enterprise.
Resolve is an early intervention Youth Case Management and Diversion program. Resolve aims to divert young people from pathways that lead to crime and help them get back on track.
We celebrated the 10th anniversary of our social enterprise Substation33.
The Pride @YFS working party is an initiative for staff to review and recommend improvements to YFS' inclusive practice.
We launched our 2023-26 Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
After more than 21 years as Chief Executive Officer, Cath Bartolo AM left YFS. Christopher John replaced Cath as CEO in July 2023.
The YFS Homelessness Outreach team goes wherever there are people in need to provide support, information and advice to people in temporary accommodation or sleeping rough.
Our employee-led Disability and Neurodiversity working group provides a voice in building an inclusive and diverse workplace.