Missionbeat’s Dan speaks to dad of homeless girl on The Grill Team

The combined forces of radio, Twitter and Facebook have been harnessed to help a caller to The Grill Team who is desperate for his 16-year-old daughter to return home.

Missionbeat Manager Dan Strickland said he quickly found out about the call through social media, when scores of Grill Team listeners started talking about youth homelessness – and offering opinions on what could be done.

Drawing on a decade of experience with Missionbeat, this morning Dan reassured the father on air that, although the reason people become homeless is often very complex, he had to remain hopeful.

“My role is not that of a counsellor, I’m not qualified to tell parents what they can do, but I can talk about reality of life on the streets,” he told the father.

“I deal with young kids who hit the streets – but sometimes there are reasons they can’t go back… Quite often they are hitting streets due to family conflict, drug and alcohol abuse and family conflict, which contributes to that situation.

“My experience working in the homelessness field for 10 years is that homelessness doesn’t discriminate – there’s the old bloke who had a family, had a home; it may be due to a gambling problem or a mental health issue.

“Or for young people who may be rebelling against the family and decide life would be better on the streets… Quite often those people are the ones that get back and get reunited with the family.”

Dan told listeners that of the 105,000 people experiencing homelessness in Australia, almost half haven’t celebrated their 25th birthday.

“So we’re looking at 50,000 young Australians who are homeless on and many don’t know there are parents who are loving them and missing them and want them home.”

Dan later spoke to the father off-air, and offered further advice on his situation.

Listen to Dan on Triple M’s The Grill Team.