Youth Service Appoints New Boss

Young Australian of the Year 2006 and former Reach Manager, Trisha Silvers, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Melbourne’s St Kilda Youth Service.

New SKYS Chief Executive Officer Trisha Silvers.

Silvers will replace Emma Crichton, who was in the role for more than nine years and left SKYS in October. Crichton has started a consultancy business.

SKYS Chair Sebastian Harvey said Trisha Silvers would bring a valued youth perspective to the position and a broad range of experience.

“Young people at SKYS took part in the selection process and were also impressed by Trisha’s warmth, confidence and her knowledge of the organisation,” he said.

“Her values, experience and reputation make her an ideal fit for SKYS and the Board looks forward to Trisha’s appointment as a significant step forward in the future of SKYS.”

In 2004 Silvers survived the tsunami that struck Asia however it claimed the life of her husband, AFL footballer Troy Broadbridge.

This led her to set up an Education Centre for tsunami survivors on Thailand’s Phi Phi Island.

At Reach, Silvers began as a client, before progressing into a management role.

“At 16 I was disengaged from traditional school learning and didn’t have a sense of self-worth. I never imagined I’d complete a university degree let alone VCE. I didn’t have something like St Kilda Youth Service to connect with and that’s why I’m passionate about showing young people there are many more paths they can take,” she said.

More than 650 disengaged young people participate in SKYS each year and Silvers said her vision was to ensure everyone feels empowered and aligned with the vision of why SKYS began. She will start on December 2.

In June 2013, the Victorian Government announced it would not continue funding the organisation’s hospitality HEAT program for disadvantaged youth.

At the time the then CEO Emma Crichton said programs such as HEAT could not be expected to provide the level of social welfare support required without government funding.

She said: “Government has a responsibility to contribute to the social welfare support of vulnerable unemployed young people in Victoria.”

However, SKYS said the program would now continue with the support of community and corporate donations.