It is unusual, probably unique, to find an agency like ECHO based in a country town on the fringes of a major city and working with local youth. A number of reports plus a great deal of anecdotal evidence proves that there is a great need in areas like this: Schools, police and social services are very supportive of our initiatives.

Three recent reports address these issues ...

'Strengthening Cockatoo project Report' - ECHO Inc.

'Cardinia Youth Strategy' - Cardinia Shire

'Families for Communities Plus' - Anglicare Victoria

Difficulties with transport are cited as one of the key problems, public services are minimal and low-income families have to rely on vehicles that are old and frequently unreliable. This makes access to support services more difficult unless they are locally based or, at least, operate from a local address: Alternate educational opportunities, such as VET courses, are also inaccessible to many. This reality led ECHO to form a local youth traing centre; known as The Australian College of Youth Traing Inc: Although an independant RTO, ACYT works closely with ECHO to achieve excellent results.  More ...