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Single Teenage Mothers – A Future Cost too Great to Bear Unless…

Brisbane, Queensland (PRWEB) April 23, 2006

In launching the “First Steps Program” today Family Focus Australia sets out to enact the very purpose for which it was founded by providing the Australian community with the opportunity to directly participate in positively changing the life of an Australian child in need.

Over the next year more than 800,000 Australian children will live each day in extreme poverty. During that same year more than one million Australian families will require some form of direct support from welfare organisations in order to feed, clothe, and house themselves. Some will only require support to get through a “bad patch” but many will require ongoing and frequent assistance.

Over the next year more than 350,000 Australian families will live in a situation where no adult family member is working in paid employment. The only family income will be the safety net provided by the Commonwealth government’s social security payments.

Over the next year more than 50,000 Australian children will join the already more than one million children who are economically, emotionally, and psychologically, affected by divorce and separation.

Over the next year more than 1 ½ million Australian families will experience severe financial stress – some will have their electricity and gas cut off, some will be evicted because of inability to pay rent or mortgage, some will not be able to afford groceries to feed themselves, or clothing, and most will not be able to provide their children with the basic necessities of life in Australia.

How we, as the Australian community, respond to these families in need today will determine how we, as a nation, shall proceed into the future.

Confronted with such figures some among us might respond with relative comparisons. After all, compared to the needs of some families in Africa, parts of Asia, and other Third World nations, these Australian families aren’t so badly off. – None of them are starving to death; none of them are dying from diseases easily cured with modern medicines; no-one is dropping bombs on them; or forcing them into refugee camps. Compared to conditions in some overseas countries even the poorest of families in Australia could do worse. But of course, by the same standard, those of us who make such comparisons would have to agree that compared to workers in those same foreign nations the average Australian worker is a billionaire. And by such comparison no Australian worker should ever complain, or strive to improve conditions for themselves. On the basis of relative comparison we have no right to expect that organisations in Australia will lobby for greater social justice and equity, or protect our consumer rights, or ensure that corrupt officials are punished. After all by the process of relative comparison every worker in Australia is a king and no-one should be striving to make things better.

In no way do I intend to diminish the needs of people in overseas countries, but by the same token we cannot logically, nor morally, make relative comparison between the needs of families in different nations. Critical need is critical need no matter where or how it occurs and at this time, in this nation, a staggering number of Australian families are in critical need.

Over the next year more than 3,000,000 Australian fathers, mothers and children will exist in some level of poverty. And it is our response to this staggering figure now that will determine not only what becomes of these Australian families in need but, also, what sorts of decisions our children will have to make regarding fellow Australians in need in the not so distant future.

Already we, today, are experiencing the negative effects of the tremendous pressure under which our countries social policies and structures exist. In every region of every State of Australia public expenditure falls well short of meeting the needs of public demand in the areas of health, education, housing, child and aged care, policing and the judicial system. In a nation where the population is ageing and the growth rate is negative no welfare system, no matter how perfectly designed, could possibly keep pace with social need without bankrupting the public purse.

To put it in the clearest and simplest terms possible – unless we, as a community, are prepared to change the way we meet the issues of Australian families in need today then our children, as the taxpayers of tomorrow, will be forced to literally decide who lives and dies. In ten years time the available public expenditure of this country will not be sufficient to meet demand and those Australian’s in need will surely then exist in Third World conditions.

And so we come to the question that must truly be asked of each of us – What kind of Australia do we want to live in? Or, perhaps more importantly, What kind of Australia do we want to hand over to our children?

As individuals and as a community our immediate response to the lives of Australian families in need will, to a large extent, determine the nature of our society now and well into the future. How we respond today will determine what options are available to our children in the future. If we get it wrong not only will Australian families in need suffer but the choices for responding to need available to our children in the future will be severely limited and they will be forced to make horrendous decisions like never before.

It was for these reasons that Family Focus Australia was founded. The issues of an ageing population and diminishing taxpayer base have long been known to Government and Community think tanks. The failure of monetary based “hand-outs” as a means of solving poverty has, for many years, been internationally documented and well researched. The emergence of inter-generational welfare dependency has been clearly identified in major First World nations, including Australia. And while Family Focus Australia applauds the necessity of ongoing discussion, forums and symposiums at all levels it nonetheless firmly believes that action speaks louder than words.

Governments cannot solve this problem. In part this is due to the necessity of a long term approach in any successful social enterprise and Governments, by design, are always primarily focus on the short term issues and usually those associated with winning re-election.

Traditional welfare institutions cannot solve the problem unless they are able to reinvent themselves but by doing so risk alienating their existing constituent members whom they already serve and upon whom they heavily rely.

Only the Australian community can solve the problem, and only then by working together to change the way we, as a nation, respond to fellow Australians in need.

Family Focus Australia has been founded in order to provide the Australian community with a national vehicle through which it can act now to change the lives of Australian children and families in need so that we all as individuals, as families, as communities, and as a nation have a brighter present and more positive future.

In launching the “First Steps Program” Family Focus Australia sets out to enact the purpose for which it was founded – alleviate the needs created by poverty in the lives of Australian children. What makes this program different and why should we care?

Each year more than 11,000 Australian children become mothers. More than 11,000 Australian children from all backgrounds, ethnic origins, and beliefs find themselves confronted with the challenges of parenting each year in our nation. Of these more than 7,000 will enter parenthood without any support from family or social networks and within six months that number will have increased to over 9,000.

These Australian girls are not tramps, they are not immoral. Many of them are themselves the daughter of a teenage parent and are repeating the learned patterns of the past. Many of them have histories of abuse, neglect, extremely low self esteem and under achievement. Many of them become pregnant in the belief that their new born child will bring love into their otherwise loveless existence.

Every year more than 11,000 Australian teenagers become mothers and this figure has remained fairly static for nearly a decade. Extensive research undertaken overseas and in Australia shows that more than 60% of teenage mothers will, as a consequence of their circumstances, never achieve financial self sufficiency and remain dependant upon the social security system for the remainder of their lives. Such a figure means that a life time debt is added to the nation’s social security budget of 5.8 Billion dollars each year – a debt that will have to be resourced by our children or the decision made as to who will live and die.

Today public expenditure can provide the funds that prevent teenage mothers and their children from starving to death, but with a rapidly diminishing taxpayer base this ongoing debt will be unsustainable within the next 15 years. Within that time ongoing support payments will have to be dramatically reduced. Yet these teenage mothers and their children, even with the support of social security, already exist well below the poverty so what hope of survival can there be for them in 15 years time?

The traditional response is to say that all these girls need is to get a job. And true, employment can lead to economic freedom. But most of these Australian teenagers are unemployed not because they are teenage mothers but because of their histories. The same issues that led to many of them becoming teenage parents are the issues that prevent them from gaining successful employment – even if they hadn’t had a child they would still be unemployed.

Family Focus Australia launches the “First Steps Program” as a means of changing the future for these Australian teenagers and their children by acting positively now.

The “First Steps Program” is a three year integrated living and support scheme that works with the single teenage mother to change the focus of their history of abuse and impoverishment so that they can achieve self sufficiency for themselves and their child, and thereby escape poverty. The program provides them with a new environment, through accommodation, furnishings, clothing and transport support. It provides them with a new way of living through learning about themselves and their inner resources and their ability to change which, through poverty and abuse have long been neglected. It provides them with the fundamentals of experience and motivation that many of them failed to receive in their early childhood and which, as a consequence has given rise to attitudes and behaviours that will surely keep them trapped in poverty all their lives. By working with Australian single teenage mothers to change their attitudes and behavioural responses to who they are and who they can become, in a positive, secure and nurturing environment, the “First Steps Program” achieves the foundation upon which each teenage mother can confidently move forward not only with their life but also the life of their child. Our intended outcomes are purposefully high, but nonetheless achievable. By the end of the program each teenage mother will be gainfully employed, they will be positive about themselves, about their child, about their parenting, about their contribution to our community and about their future in our nation.

As an Australian community your support is needed to make this happen. And it needs to happen not only for the teenage mothers, for their children but also for ourselves and our children.

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