Final straw for youth

By Casey Neill
POOR public transport is prompting many hills youths to throw in the towel.
Young people in the Dandenongs often struggle to access employment and education because of inadequate bus and train services.
ECHO Emerald director Wayne Collins said the teens he assisted were often already disillusioned, and difficulties accessing public transport compounded this.
Many give up.
“For young people in the hills, if they leave school they’ve got to be reasonably motivated to get public transport,” he said.
“The services leave very early.”
ECHO connects with young people in the community to improve their outlook on life.
Many have left high school before completing Year 12 and need to access employment and higher education.
Mr Collins said five years ago it was “almost impossible” to get to reach some places from the hills because bus services were sporadic.
“It has improved but they’re still not the same as the metro services,” he said.
Mr Collins said Chisholm Institute of TAFE Dandenong was hard for young hills people to get to.
They can now reach Pakenham and Belgrave with ease during peak periods.
“The difficulty is when you’re out of the peak hours late at night,” he said.
Mr Collins said many of the young people he saw were already lacking motivation and the early starts could push them over the edge.
“If you’re not motivated it’s pretty hard to look down the barrel of ‘I’ve got to catch a 5am bus’,” he said.
“It’s a long day.”