Amy* is just 15 but she’s already known homelessness and hardship in her young life. She had dropped out of school and had been living between the streets and refuges.

Thankfully a friend told her about the Chapel School – Merrylands campus of Key College,  a school for kids like Amy who’ve disconnected from mainstream education.

She’s been a student at the Chapel School for a year now. Our caring team of teachers and youth workers have worked with Amy to put together a learning plan that meets her needs.

It hasn’t been an easy run. In her first year at Chapel School, Amy was using drugs and often homeless. She was in and out of detention centres. But she kept coming back to the School.

“The teachers are so supportive,” she says. “They’re supportive even when I get up and leave or yell at them. At the end of the day, they’re calling me up to make sure I’m safe.”

Amy did her Year 10 exams in a juvenile detention centre. She says she couldn’t have done it without the teachers and students at Chapel School.

Thanks to the wonderful people who support the Chapel School through generous donations, we’re able to help kids like Amy through the tough times – no matter what.

It’s not all about study at the Chapel School. Amy painted her idol Ernie Dingo for the Archibald Prize and she had fun dressing up on Presentation Night. She made her stage debut at the Chapel School too, performing in a play that she and her fellow students had written.

Amy is looking to the future. Next year she wants to get a stable job and finish Year 11.

The Youth off the Streets team will support her to reach these goals. With your help, even more kids like Amy will be able to return to school and turn their lives around.

*Name changed for privacy reasons

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