SUNBURY teenager Jennifer Galea has been looking for work for more than a year.
Now 17, she left school last year to find a job.
"I applied for Coles and those types of places, I would have taken anything, but was never offered anything."
Unable to find work, she has now gone back to school.
Jennifer was referred to Youth Projects last July.
Her case manager, Samantha Winnick,
said: "Everything is so regulated now. I think one of the things affecting employment is that you have to have a qualification for everything, even to stack shelves at Kmart.
"The first step was to encourage Jennifer to think she could go back to school. She felt disempowered.
"I work from a strong empowerment model, encouraging
her to realise she had the power to change her own life," she said.
Jennifer now attends TAFE in Broadmeadows and is doing
a diploma in community welfare.
She hopes to one day become a juvenile justice worker.
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