An independent future looking bright at home
When Shyanne looks back on her 18 years of life living in state care, she beams with a smile and talks excitedly about the future knowing the road ahead is hers to shape. With the support of AnglicareSA, which came into her life in recent years, Shyanne has recently moved into a brand-new apartment and is enjoying a flourishing career in event management. “I look back at my life a year ago to now, or five years ago until now, and no way would I think I could be here,” Shyanne says. “I wouldn’t think I’d be working yet and now I’ve already been promoted and I’m looking at getting team leadership contracts. “I am working for a company that does expos, conventions, and festivals around Adelaide, so I’ve worked on things like Illuminate and the Adelaide 500. “I had no clue this is something you could do and it’s fantastic – I love this job so much.” It’s a big shift away from her start to life when, along with her twin brother, Shyanne was placed into foster care at five months of age. This was the beginning of a long journey of placement breakdowns, frequent house moves, and fractured family relationships. “My brother and I did the maths one day because we were together most of the time,” Shyanne recalls. “I think, before we stopped living together because it just wasn’t working anymore, we did about 20 different placements including biological sisters and residential care.” Shyanne was referred to AnglicareSA’s Launch 180 program – a service for young people aged 16 to 18 under the Guardianship of the Minister which provides 24/7 support in independent accommodation.
Shyanne
Such was the personal growth in Shyanne in recent years, she proved to be a model tenant at PCP, keeping her unit clean and tidy and continuing to develop as a working young adult. It meant when an apartment through an $11 million Believe Housing Australia social and affordable housing development became available in July, AnglicareSA helped her secure the rental, set up utilities at her new home, helped her move in, and to this day remains in touch. Shyanne has nothing but praise for the support she has been given, knowing that anything is possible for her now as she acknowledges her past while taking full control of her future.
Learning essential life skills including budgeting and how to keep a clean home, it set Shyanne up for the next stage of her life as she neared 18 and faced the need to find permanent accommodation. The Post Care Pathways (PCP) program, run by AnglicareSA and Believe Housing Australia, provides subsidised housing through self- contained, one-bedroom apartments in Adelaide’s inner south-west for young people leaving care from age 18 to 25. “I thought I’d just private rent and find something else and then obviously I couldn’t because there’s a housing crisis and I can’t afford a private rental. “It’s close to the city, close to my work, there’s shopping, coffee, and food – everything really.”
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