The youth homelessness organisation Kids Under Cover, which is based in Richmond, Victoria, will help you get rid of a car that’s past its prime, and in donating your car in this way you also receive a tax receipt for the amount raised which you can claim as a donation.

The Unsellables scheme is easy. Anyone wanting to get rid of a car can use an online donation form, then within three business days they’ll hear from Kids Under Cover via their venture partner Manheim. Manheim will arrange for pick-up of the car and auctioning. All the owner needs to do is to remove the number plates and hand them in to the local transport authority and cancel the registration.

This year alone 405 cars have been donated (as of the end of February), and a total of 5,200 cars have been donated since the scheme began in 2006. Manheim is an indispensable part of this great scheme. Cars for donation cannot be under finance or be cars that have been found abandoned. There is a useful FAQ page on the website.

For more, visit the Unsellables website.

Kids Under Cover runs a range of programs and initiatives to help young homeless people, including a program to provide portable studio homes in the grounds of young people’s families. It is the only organisation in Australia to run such a program.

The Studio Program works in combination with scholarships and mentoring to keep young people at risk of homelessness engaged in the schooling system. The average age at which young people enter the program is 16. According to Kids Under Cover, one of the main causes of youth homelessness and family breakdown is overcrowding. An example is given in the organisation’s 2014 annual report of ten people crammed into four bedrooms, amid rising family tensions. Providing a studio in this instance allowed young people at risk of leaving the family home to remain within the family circle but with a degree of autonomy.

This program has many tangible benefits including keeping families together, improving wellbeing, keeping young people engaged in education and improving the ability of young people to live independently. Kids Under Cover now has nearly 400 studios providing accommodation for nearly 450 young people.

For more information, see the Kids Under Cover website or download the organisation’s 2014 annual report.

The organisation was started in 1989 by Ken Morgan OAM in direct response to the Senate National Inquiry into Youth Homelessness.