Jackson is the Manager of Policy and Strategic Engagement at Q Shelter: a peak body driving responses and solutions to housing needs and homelessness in Queensland. YFS works with Q Shelter to support those at-risk of or experiencing homelessness in the Logan community.
“YFS is one of our biggest service providers. Even though it’s very grounded in Logan and its surrounds, it does a lot of partnership work even outside of that area.”
“It’s such a diverse organisation, so it ends up popping up in everything that we do as a system-based peak body.”
Throughout his tenure at Q Shelter, Jackson has been impressed with YFS’ commitment to developing strong relationships and collaboration throughout the housing sector.
“YFS is a huge service provider, but there’s two ways you could approach that: you either absorb all the work and funding and you do it all yourself, or you find a way to partner with other organisations. YFS has always chosen the latter.”
“The reflections that I hear from that region is that YFS is very collegiate. It’s seen as the local leader, it has great capacity, but it also works in partnership.”
“That attitude is one of the reasons that YFS is so well regarded and perceived, and it’s a testament to how they operate.”
YFS is unique, however, because of its commitment to learn, grow, and seize opportunities when they arise.
“YFS is always on the precipice of wanting to better understand the community’s needs, so can position their service to be as effective as possible.”
“It’s always looking for how it can add value to other systems, processes, and organisations that already exist. That’s where our partnership is at its strongest – when YFS is reaching out to find where they can collaborate, how they can work with us, or even looking at ways to actually advocate into government when we need to.”
Establishing a dialogue with the local government is, for Jackson, essential in addressing housing needs. YFS’ open and positive relationship with the government is a huge asset for Q Shelter’s mission.
“YFS is leading the sector in Logan, working with the local government and other stakeholders to be well positioned for additional resources and funding.”
“Its partnership with the local government is really important. Sometimes those relationships can be adversarial because people don’t always agree with the government’s policy approach. But I think YFS has built a really good relationship, and the local government sees them as a strong partner in their joint approach to this set of issues.”
Jackson is incredibly grateful of how YFS has managed to leverage both their partnerships and government relationships to achieve results for the community.
“The way YFS communicates with us and the National Shelter about priorities for the sector and aligning our advocacy around resourcing and funding is really appreciated.”
Jackson’s proudest moment in partnership with YFS was in this advocacy space.
“We ran a campaign with YFS and other system partners at the end of last year, which was linked to housing market monitoring and potential displacement impacts in the lead up to the 2032 Olympic & Paralympic Games. It’s an issue that we’re really concerned with as we predict wellbeing and housing pressures in Logan will be impacted by major events, even if they’re held in Brisbane.”
“Many organisations we work with, YFS included, didn’t feel like people were taking the potential impacts of the 2032 Games seriously enough because of the focus on immediate housing needs. Together with YFS, we recognised how much worse it could get, without further intervention and appropriate planning to mitigate the possible impacts, and we decided to do something about it.”
“I just really loved how we joined forces on that. We coordinated a lot of media engagement and government directed advocacy, and I worked really closely with YFS’ executive team.”
This strategic, future focused approach is why many look to YFS as a leader in the sector, an organisation at the forefront of developing practical solutions to the housing crisis.
“A lot of our system is focused on responding to the housing crisis on a daily basis. YFS really is a leader because, while they’re focused on the immediate need, they’re also really trying to see a little bit beyond that to figure out what this industry looks like in the next five to ten years and how we ought to set ourselves up to be effective.”
