Strategies for Social Changes: Addressing Youth Poverty in Australia

Running head: STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL CHANGES
Youth Poverty
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL CHANGES
Introduction:
Poverty is a condition where individuals have very little or even no possession, money
and wealth. It can also be understood as the lack of power, social status, economic status,
political status or educational status. Poverty furthermore reduces access to several necessary
services such education and healthcare, due to which these individuals often lack proper
education and unable to meet their healthcare needs leading to increased risk of diseases.
Lack of education further limits the employability of these people, which adversely affects
their socio economic condition. Such adversities can increase the risks of problems such as
addiction, depression, suicide, deviant behaviours, domestic violence and sociopathy
(Hagenaars, 2017).
Poverty in youth is a global phenomenon, and millions of youth globally are deprived
of adequate resources and support to carry on with their day to day life. Lack of education,
money, healthcare and support framework, many of the youth have been adversely affected,
increasing the rate of health problems, crime, deviant behaviour and social problems (Kohler
et al., 2015).
The aim of this study is to understand the problem of youth poverty in Australia,
identify goals or objectives to address the problem as well as strategies to achieve them.
Some of the main obstacles to achieve the goals would also be discussed.
Academic Background
Poverty is a significant problem in Australia. It has been estimated that more than 1
million youth in Australia live in poverty, amounting to about 17.68% of all youth in
Australia. The poverty has increased in the last four years, from 13.3% in 2014. Moreover the
rates of poverty are higher among families with single parents, compared to couple parents.

2STRATEGIES FOR SOCIAL CHANGES
Many of these impoverished youth lacks access to proper housing facilities with a majority of
them (59.78%) living in rental places (Saunders, 2018). Additionally, the rates of poverty
were most common in unemployed people. According to the estimates the families of about
63.25% of the unemployed people in Australia face poverty. Also, maintaining employment
is a challenge for many of the individuals living in poverty. This inability to provide for the
family leads to the youth living in poverty as well. About 53.7% of the families living in
poverty depends on social security to support their families. Additionally, the prevalence of
long term health conditions is also very high (about 44.3%) among these youth, compared to
rest of Australians (Saunders et el., 2016).
Studies have shown that poverty especially among the youth can lead to several
adverse outcomes. It can limit access to proper education which is necessary for early
development as well as to acquire professional skills. It limits access to healthcare leading to
poor health conditions and higher rates of mortality. It leads to improper or inadequate
nutrition and also causes food insecurity. Incidence of violence and crimes can increase in
impoverished neighbourhoods. These factors further aggravate each other, as one factor
causes others to become worse, thus showing how poverty can have disastrous consequences
for the youth (Mazza et al., 2017; Sätre et al., 2017).
Short and long term and medium long term goals to address the issue
The social systems framework helps to develop an understanding of the society as
supported through the network and inter relations between individuals, groups and
communities. A social system of a place helps to understand the society and its needs by
understanding human behaviour and the social environment (Hinkel et al., 2015).