Documentary Australia Foundation

The Oasis

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Synopsis

Tough kids from tough backgrounds living dangerous lives – these are the young people of Oasis, a grimy brick youth refuge in inner-city Sydney. No story is too horrific, no circumstance too dire, no kid too damaged for its tireless director, Captain Paul Moulds. Father figure, counsellor, saviour, and an orphan himself, Paul is nothing short of a legend amongst those who stumble in at breaking point, with nowhere left to go. Only Paul is there through all the chaos, from the birth of new babies to the funerals of those who self-destruct prematurely. This raw observational documentary filmed over two and a half years, charts the fraught lives of Paul's extended family and captures his daily battle to save these lost children of the so-called 'Lucky Country'

Impact

The key outcomes of this project were:

* increased public awareness of the issue;
* increased community support for youth homelessness services;
* it is hoped that government will take up some of the recommendations from the National Youth Commission;
* intangible results such as the reunion of young people with parents;
* a shift in the community of Surry Hills where Oasis is located.

The feature length film screened on the ABC on the 10th April 2008 during National Youth Week (April 5-13 2008) which coincided with the launch of the National Youth Commission's Report on Australia's homeless youth.

Government at all levels support National Youth Week (NYW) which is the single largest youth event in Australia and in 2006 involved more than 250,000 young people. Primarily this initiative promotes a community focus on issues of concern to young people.

The screening was presented on air by Tony Jones, an eminent ABC television journalist who hosted an on-air panel discussion after the broadcast. To discuss the issues of homelessness including addiction, mental health and family breakdown, panelists were the Minister of Housing, Tania Plibersek, David Eldridge, Commissioner of the NYC, Rhonda Galbally, an internationally-renowned community advocate and chief executive of ourcommunity.com.au and founding CEO of VicHealth, and Paul Moulds from Oasis.

In collboration with ABC Publicity, Shark Island Productions coordinated an Australia wide public relations and media campaign employing the company Hootville to assist coverage across television, newspaper, magazine, radio, and trade publications.

The collaboration between Shark Island Productions and the national broadcaster made for 'event programming' delivering an audience across the nation of over a million people and generating 1,000s of emails to the online forum after the transmission. The collaboration strengthened Ian Darling's initiative in providing leadership on the issue of youth homelessness. It helped focus and underline the community's duty of care to one another and helped educate about the complexity of homelessness, mental health, addiction, poverty and family breakdown.

Shark Island Productions constructed a major interactive educational website on youth homelessness which is an ongoing resource.

Following the ABC transmission a donation of the DVD with a comprehensive study guide for teachers and students to 3,200 secondary school in Australia. The study guide was generated by the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM). The study guide is availabe online at ATOM. Shark Island Productions, with assistance from interested Foundations, covered the costs of the production of the DVD and study guides, their duplication, the cost of the distribution service and postage.

The National Youth Commission on Youth Homelessness Report was distributed to all levels of government and private welfare agencies by Shark Island Productions. Summary Reports were distributed to all State and Federal Ministers.

The launch of the education package coincided with a screening in Federal Parliament, with distribution of the Summary Report. 350 DVDs and Summary Report were distributed via Philanthropy Australia to the major philanthropic organisations in Australia. This was a collaboration between Philanthropy Australia, the Documentary Australia Foundation and Shark Island Productions.

Salvation Army screenings were held at the 200 Corps offices/halls around Australia for the local community.

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