The Warrior Woman Foundation provides support services for vulnerable young under-represented Australian women. Our flagship program, The Young Warrior Woman Program is a holistic mentoring and psycho-educational program which provides connection, education, and mental health support to young women 15-25 years of age transitioning from out-of-home care who are at risk of homelessness. Together the mentors and mentees attend an intensive and structured six-month program consisting of fortnightly life-skills education workshops, transformative presentations by inspirational speakers who have overcome personal adversity, financial independence workshops, job readiness workshops and psycho-educational group therapy sessions. Additionally, each young woman participates in weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions.

Why we exist: Youth who have been exited from the out-of-home care system make up two thirds of the homeless youth population in Australia. For far too long we have witnessed poor outcomes for youth being required to leave the care system on or before their 18th birthday, with up to 50% ending up homeless, unemployed, in jail, or becoming a new parent within a year. The termination of care by the NSW state governments at 18 years is not consistent with parenting that is seeing most young people remain home well into their 20’s.

The devastating effects of COVID-19 on employment has significantly impacted the economic security of Australian women. It has never been more critical that we assist vulnerable young women leaving out-of-home care so that they can become resilient, independent, and capable of taking their place in the world.