FOUR years after emerging as a support initiative for northern young people, Elizabeth social service Streetlight has reached new heights during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The community group usually holds outreach sessions for young people at the Elizabeth Shopping Centre, but was locked out once coronavirus restrictions came into effect.

To compensate for losing the chance to give face-to-face support, South Australia Community Achiever Award nominee Jess Ferdinands got in touch with Streetlight founder Ben Rowe to set up an online initiative.

They came up with Street Eats, an online cooking program which provided 15 unsupported young people the ingredients and tools to create healthy meals themselves.

The pair collected food from a local supermarket and delivered personally to the participants’ homes, before they would log on and participate in a live cooking tutorial.

“The majority of those 15 young people were regularly engaged in our (Streetlight) program,” Mr Rowe said.

“We knew they were all stuck at home and knew their homes weren’t necessarily amazing safe spaces for some of them.

“So to give them something positive and constructive to do which was healthy for them and their family and a way to save money… was a way to get them involved when they didn’t have much to do.”

According to Streetlight, 80 per cent of its participants were without the necessary equipment to cook a home-made meal prior to the program.

Ms Ferdinands felt rewarded after seeing the kids try new foods and learn new skills through Street Eats.

“We’re not sure when we’ll run another one, but it did create a lot of positive change, so we hope we can run it again,” she said.

“I absolutely loved it. I came in never having had met these young people before and I wasn’t sure what sort of response we were going to get.

“I had doubts that we may rock up to people’s houses and they won’t be there, or we jump online and the technology doesn’t work. In the end it all came together so well.

“I think a lot of that was to do with the trusting relationships Streetlight has formed over the years.

“For a lot of us, isolation is hard, but isolation in a place which isn’t exactly safe is even worse”.

Mr Rowe started Streetlight in 2016 after spending time as a youth pastor at the Elizabeth Church of Christ.

He found regular outreach initiatives which focused on drawing unsupported young people towards a structured programs were failing in Elizabeth.

As an alternative, Mr Rowe struck up a partnership with the Elizabeth Shopping Centre’s management and went to where young people were congregating to organise casual activities and chat to kids who needed social support.

“There’s a lot of unsociable behaviour that takes place, so we go out to try and engage them in a positive way and be a positive influence in their lives,” he said.

“I saw around Elizabeth that are unsupported and tend to rebel against some of the institutional formats of programs and services – whether its education, employment, social or church. They don’t really like going to a program.

“Streetlight is a way to create a positive difference for young people where they naturally gather and create change in their lives where they are, rather than where we were.”

After a shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Streetlight’s presence in the Elizabeth Shopping Centre has now returned.