Cody Forrester can say "exactly" where he'd be if it wasn't for the Albury Project.
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"I had it planned out - to run away or kill myself," he states firmly.
It was in Year 10 that the Murray High School student really started struggling; unable to get out of bed, he was barely attending school and in imminent danger of becoming homeless due to "lots of family stress" at home.
While he loved school ("it was my safe place"), Cody says his increasing anxiety and mental health problems put him at risk of dropping out.
Cody was flagged in an annual survey, designed to screen young people at Albury's three state high schools for early risk factors of homelessness, school disengagement and mental health.
It's the Albury Project's first step in identifying vulnerable youth (placing them into three categories of risk and need) before a co-ordinated team swings into action with support.
In Cody's case, his first priority was independent accommodation; the team found him a spot in a caravan park close enough to school that he could walk there.
That was just the start of the "wraparound" supports that helped him finish school - from sourcing classroom supplies and furniture to help navigating Centrelink and even driving lessons.
Where Cody is today is a world away from his 15-year-old self.
Articulate and quietly self-assured, the 20-year-old is completing a business degree at CSU, he lives in a unit in central Albury, and works at Glenroy Public School, helping students in the special needs class.
None of this would have happened without the timely intervention of the Albury Project, he insists.
Cody likens the project to "putting a safety net around a bridge ... rather than fishing someone out of the water once they're drowning".
"I'm the embodiment of what the Albury Project can achieve," he enthuses.
"I know these guys can change lives!"
Murray High School principal Norman Johnson-Meader sees first-hand how the Albury Project is changing young lives every day.
Indeed, he says, "I would find it very hard to conceptualise our school community without it".
Modelled on the pioneering Geelong Project, Albury was only the second place in Australia to adopt the initiative that brings schools and services together to identify and help young people "before things go really wrong".
At its heart, the aim is to reduce the strain on crisis support services and intervene early to stop a young person's trajectory in life taking a dramatic - and often preventable - turn for the worse.
Mr Johnson-Meader uses words like "disadvantaged", "disenfranchised", and "marginalised" to describe the situation before the arrival of the Albury Project.
The Community of Schools and Services (COSS) approach - a locally driven, co-ordinated response to young people showing early indicators of risk - embodies true early intervention, says the principal, who is in his fifth year at the helm.
The benefits are "patently clear", he says.
"There's been a social calming.
"The camaraderie between the service providers and schools has helped shoulder the responsibility for the provision of services in a pro-active and pre-emptive way."
It's made an "immense difference" to student wellbeing, according to Mr Johnson-Meader.
He says he has witnessed a significant change to the culture of Murray High School in the past five years.
"There is a level of trust and comfort among our young people that there will be supports for them," Mr Johnson-Meader says.
"We are definitely seeing stronger levels of engagement and I've seen the case studies of young people whose success has been absolutely inspiring."
"If (The Albury Project) was suspended, it would create immense challenges for us to provide these successful supports to young people and their families."
- Norman Johnson-Meader (Murray High School principal)
And while he concedes there is "still a long way to go" and we don't have long-term data on the project outcomes, the verdict is unanimous.
"Here's the thing - the Albury Project contributes, like many other things, to magnificent schools," he states.
"Having something that brings the school community together and having had that experience for the past five years ... well, it's incredibly difficult to imagine a world without this.
"If (The Albury Project) was suspended, it would create immense challenges for us to provide these successful supports to young people and their families."
He praised the foresight of the education leaders before him who paved the way for the project's introduction at Albury, James Fallon and Murray high schools.
"They maintained a vision and direction that has led to where we are now," Mr Johnson-Meader says.
Yes Unlimited early intervention co-ordinator Kate McGrath and early intervention specialist Hannah Clayton are sitting with Cody at The Hive, Lavington.
Kate, who has been with Yes Unlimited for 13 years, knows all too well the importance of getting to at-risk youth early.
She says the Albury Project has uncovered a "hidden cohort" of young people who weren't on the school or services radar.
Identifying those at risk and offering them help means they are more likely to remain in the family home, more likely to stay at school, to find work opportunities and, critically, avoid the path that could see them end up in a crisis service.
When you have a crisis system that's already over-run, it's even more important to "catch them before they fall hard", Kate says.
Hannah, who is placed at James Fallon High School as a youth worker, currently has about 33 students under her wing.
This year the project is supporting about 119 students across the three schools (a further 50 students at Albury High and 36 students at Murray High).
That's nearly 5.5 per cent of the 2265 students at those schools.
That's a lot of lives - a lot of futures - on the line, agree Hannah, Kate and Cody.
Hannah is quick to point out that not every student needs a full, multi-service response.
"Sometimes it's little things - a tiny push to go to school, help with transport to attend appointments, getting a licence, or sourcing uniforms or school supplies," she explains.
"It's about the right support at the right time."
Just as importantly, the formalised partnership between schools and services means the young person doesn't have to keep telling their story over and over again.
"And they don't have to navigate services alone," Kate says.
Cody says it's like having "professional parents".
And, in a way, that's probably the crux of it - and why it works.
In 2019, Albury's Yes Unlimited received funding for the four-year pilot program, which is due to end in December this year.
Schools and agencies are convinced the model is making a difference.
That difference is being seen in schools themselves but also beyond the school gate - real outcomes in real time in real lives.
Yes Unlimited client services manager Jon Park says in the midst of the current housing crisis and increasing levels of homelessness, now is NOT the time to be losing innovative early intervention responses.
He says Albury's public high schools have led the way in doing things differently through this partnership.
"Schools are often holding a whole range of complex social issues and really are first responders to things like mental ill health, homelessness and broader disadvantage," he says.
"We've been so fortunate to have local schools, who are juggling many priorities, take on the challenge and the investment that true early intervention requires because of a deep care for their students."
Mr Johnson-Meader speaks with a lot of young people, some of whom will never need to access the supports of the Albury Project.
"But they know it's there," he says.
"The Albury Project is well understood and has been embraced by students and teachers.
"It's seeped in and become such an integral part of what we do as a collective and as individual schools.
"Every day I am buoyed, encouraged and grateful for the work that ensures our young people are looked after as best they can be."
