Western Sydney Homeless Youth Assistance Program (HYAP)

This service, operating as MacKillop HYAP Services, supports children and young people aged between 12 to 15 years old who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

It provides a 24/7 supported short-term accommodation for young people living in the Blacktown, Cumberland, Parramatta and The Hills Shire local government areas.

It also provides support to young people by assisting them to establish and or maintain healthy relationships including strengthening their connections to family, community and culture, to support the young person to navigate services for general health, mental health, education, and employment, and assist them in linking to other specialist support services.

Children and young people will be supported to continue or access education, employment and training options. It will also ensure that intensive and integrated support with specialist services such as mental health, drug and alcohol or trauma counselling is facilitated with the for the young person.

A strengths-based case management approach is used to deliver wraparound interventions to build resilience and enhance protective factors.