our 2024-25 highlights
becoming home base
On 1 November 2024, we celebrated a very exciting milestone in our organisation's journey.
After 50 years of service under Colony 47, we proudly announced our new name and identity: Home Base.
This change reflects our unwavering commitment to supporting young Tasmanians and our renewed focus on meeting young people where they’re at.
The new name, chosen by young Tasmanians, embodies what we stand for—a welcoming, safe space and a solid foundation for those on the journey to stability and independence.
While our name has changed, our dedication to supporting vulnerable young Tasmanians remains as strong as ever.
Now, as Home Base, we continue that legacy, offering essential services to those in need.
In the six months leading up to our name change, we worked closely with young people from schools, community programs, and various initiatives alongside our creative partners to develop this identity that truly resonates with our mission.
We sought a lot of feedback from all kinds of stakeholders, including our staff and young people we represent.
We collaborated with over 215 young Tasmanians via focus groups, one on ones, in schools and via surveys and they told us clearly that they wanted the name to represent a little bit about what we do but not be so obvious that they needed to feel any shame about coming and asking for help when they need it.
One night we went to a group of young people residing in one of our residential accommodation facilities, and one of the young girls suggested Home Base. All the other young people automatically loved this name!
We were really lucky to build a relationship and have a great partnership with Futago, a small Tasmanian agency in Hobart who helped bring everything to life, including our brand identity that we are all really proud to wear.
What we've ended up with is a visual representation and name that represents for young people, somewhere safe, somewhere that they know they can go to, somewhere to give them a hand up.
Somewhere for them to find a Home Base.
We believe that all children and young people have the right to be respected, informed, involved, heard and safe.
We engage in ongoing consultation and feedback mechanisms to continuously adapt our services to the changing needs of young people.
In addition to the feedback that we gathered through our large brand consultation project, we also ensure a considered approach is taken to each community activity we attend to ask young people for their opinions.
It could be simply asking them if they’ve heard about Home Base, where they go for information, their thoughts on misconceptions around youth homeless, or doing a poll on what may stop them for applying for an entry level position.
These insights help us to bring the voices of all the young people we meet to any table we may be at.
We can use the information we gather to back up our thoughts on the radio, to help get laws passed for a healthier Tasmania and we can harness their collective ideas to make things bigger and better for young Tasmanians.
They are, after all, the voices of the people we represent. The voices of tomorrow. Our next generation of leaders!
youth engagement
christmas lunch
For over four decades we had the pleasure of providing a safe, welcoming place for people on what can be the loneliest day of the year.
From its first humble years the Christmas lunch has grown into a powerful community gathering, addressing feelings of social isolation for hundreds of people, made possible by a posse of Tasmanians.
The team starts campaigning around September each year to ensure by the time December comes around we have enough food, gifts, volunteers and funds.
Being that we rely on help from the community it’s a wonderful effort to make sure everyone who attends feels special the entire day.
This year, following the success of last year’s new venue - we excitedly hosted our traditional Community Christmas Lunch once again at our partner venue – In The Hanging Garden.
We worked with our catering partner FLINT Kitchen who catered the event with wonderful donations of time, food, gifts, and funds from the community.
We thank everyone who helped us set a place at the table for those who would otherwise feel alone or isolated. The day was a resounding success yet again, on what was our final Community Christmas Lunch.
Youth Homelessness Matters Day (YHMD) is a national day that was conceived in 1990 to raise awareness and public discussion about child and youth homelessness.
It is held every year on the third Wednesday of April. In 2025, we proudly took ownership of the day and hosted our first ever Home Base event based on feedback from young people.
We joined forces with Glenorchy City Council and an array of service providers and sports teams and hosted a free all ages community event. It was a well-received way to show young people and their families who is around to help when they need us.
Over 400 young people and their families attended. We had a skateboarding competition, free BBQ and a range of activities such as cricket, basketball and spray painting.
There were over 15 community service providers present to provide information on ways they can help Tasmanians.
We met young people where they needed us and they left knowing if they needed help, a community is there to do so!
youth homelessness matters day
Home Base for many years has been collaboratively researching the link between young men’s health and wellbeing and the incidence of Intimate Partner Violence. It is well documented that prevention through early intervention is key to break the cycle of adult family, domestic and sexual violence (FDSV) and improve life outcomes for all genders.
Initially, we attempted to address Adolescent Intimate Partner Violence (AIPV) through one-on-one interventions which were mostly unsuccessful. In response to this, our Merge program was developed over a period of 3 years which included robust community consultation with specialist professionals, training, research and multiple trials to ascertain what was going to work and what was not within a local Tasmanian context.
Merge explores the possible negative life outcomes for boys and men if they adhere to rigid, intergenerational stereotypes and gender roles. It further explores how these negative life outcomes are far more likely when coupled with dominant masculinities where the likelihood of the use of violence towards a female partner or other men is greatly increased. It also explores the same transmission occurring horizontally through online influences and peer groups.
Boys are equipped with new knowledge, strategies, tools and resources to allow them to make informed choices about who they want to be and positively influence and inform their roles within relationships.
The program creates the conditions for change where boys feel safe, can build their confidence and learn of the benefits to being connected, respectful and remaining nonviolent.
Boys completing Merge become peer advocates and champion gender equity and the path to equality in the school setting and in their future intimate partner relationships.
On launching the current model at the beginning of the 2025 school year, the program quickly reached capacity with School Social Workers reaching out and communicating a desperate need for this groupwork style of intervention for young boys. Merge is currently being delivered across primary schools in Southern Tasmania. The target cohort is small groups of boys aged 11 years.
To date, the program has been delivered in 8 schools to 48 young men.
program spotlight
When we were becoming Home Base, we wanted to create a brand that people would be proud to wear.
A brand that staff would wear to promote belonging to Home Base. A brand that supporters would be proud to wear to generate conversations. A brand that young people would be keen to wear since it spoke to them!
So, we went all out.
We worked with Tasmanian businesses to bring our vision to life, to create cost effective wear that would last well and provide a few price point options. We wanted to offer a range of goods that people would want to buy and that we could provide a small mark up on to help diversify our fundraising efforts.
Based on direct feedback we received from young people, that we should work with young artists on projects to support them we collaborated with a young person, Katie, to design our first limited edition hoodie!
Then at our launch, we took a risk and hosted three merchandise booths – we were blown away by the amount of support we got. It was amazing. And we’re still adding to our shop on a seasonal basis.
We have hats, socks, tees, crews, beanies and a limited-edition hoodie – a wide range of gear for you to show your support proudly on your sleeve, or head.
The best part of it is..
THE FUNDS WE RAISE GO STRAIGHT BACK INTO SUPPORTING YOUNG TASMANIANS!
street wear merch
buy some merchandise
Looking for gift ideas this Christmas? Support us help more young Tasmanians by buying some cool streetwear for your nearest and dearest!
Want to know more about our impact?
For our full report containing more stories and impact, head over to our reports page and view our stats for previous years, including case studies and more information on how we’ve been making a difference in the Tasmanian community.