$3 million in grant funding to support communities across Queensland respond to youth offending

• More than $3 million in funding provided through the Community Partnership Innovation Grants
• 12 projects will share the funding to deliver local solutions to youth crime.
• The local projects complement the wide range of government programs and initiatives aimed at tackling the complex causes of youth crime.

Tailored intensive case management, early intervention for young people affected by domestic and family violence and after-hours outreach and mentoring are among 12 new projects aimed at addressing youth crime to receive funding from the Palaszczuk Government.

Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard announced the Community Partnership Innovation Grants today, alongside Logan-based Youth Off The Streets, an organisation that will receive nearly $300,000 to support First Nations, Pasifika and African communities through culturally responsive wrap-around support.

This funding, part of the second round of the grant program, totals more than $3 million in one-off funding for projects to enable local communities to deliver locally designed solutions to tackle the complex causes of youth offending.

Youth Off The Streets’ T-REK program will support young people leaving youth detention centres to return to community through custody transition planning. The program will also work with a number of high schools in Logan to support young people who have been suspended or disengaged from education.

Key to this support is the delivery of community and cultural engagement by First Nations Elders, cultural leaders and local community members.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Youth Justice Leanne Linard:

“Local communities are often the first to see when a young person disconnects from family, stops attending school or shows anti-social behaviour.

“The Palaszczuk Government’s Community Partnership Innovation Grants enable grass roots organisations to stop offending before it starts, or reduce offending, to make a real difference to the lives of young people.

“From Logan to Cairns and out to Goondiwindi, the wealth of experience and knowledge local groups have will be put to good use and our Government is proud to partner with them.

“The projects receiving grants complement the wide range of programs and initiatives delivered by State Government agencies to tackle the complex causes of youth crime.

“We are committed to addressing youth crime and recently announced a comprehensive suite of measures, including an additional $100 million in funding for programs proven to make a difference in diverting young people from crime.”

Quotes attributable to Treasurer and Member for Woodridge Cameron Dick:

“The Palaszczuk Government’s funding to Youth Off the Street will allow this great organisation to reconnect young and vulnerable people with our wonderful community.

“These young people are part of our community, they are sons, daughters, friends, brothers and sisters.

“They have experienced a hard time and they need help getting back into education, or securing a job.

“Central to this program are support services for First Nations, Pasifika and African communities.

“I’m proud to be a part of a government that doesn’t give up on those going through a tough time but instead lifts them up while promoting an inclusive, harmonious, and united Queensland – a place where everyone feels welcomed and valued.”

Quotes attributable to Youth Off The Streets’ Acting Director of Youth Support Services Michelle Ackerman:

“This grant funding will allow us to deliver our T-REK program, which stands for Together – Respected, Engaged, Kinnected, over four days a week from our site right here in Logan.

“We will be able to support young people from many cultural backgrounds, who are leaving detention and returning to Logan, with the support they need to re-engage in education and develop age-appropriate living skills.

“T-REK will also support young people who are suspended or disengaged from school and who are at risk of engaging in anti-social behaviour, building an early intervention pathway to support young people to achieve their goals.”

More information

For more information on the Community Partnership Innovation Grant scheme visit www.cyjma.qld.gov.au/about-us/our-department/funding-grants-investment/community-partnership-innovation-grants

Projects to be delivered under Round 2 are:

• Brisbane – Lutheran Church - $300,000
  Targeted holistic complex case coordination and intensive case management for at risk, vulnerable young people displaying offending behaviours. This project will target the underlying causes of criminal behaviours, focusing on social and emotional wellbeing.
• Brisbane – Beyond DV - $295,665
  Holistic early intervention to young people affected by domestic and family violence, with the goal of reducing the impact of trauma and minimising the likelihood they will engage in criminal activity.
• Cairns – Selectability Limited - $259,331
  An after-hours outreach and mentoring program in Earlville and Edmonton. It includes transportation to return young people home, and referrals for young people to connect them with existing cultural programs and key agencies.
• Cairns – Australian Training Works Group Pty Ltd - $299,423
  An Indigenous Group Training Organisation that provides work readiness courses and builds young people’s skills for the workplace, such as communication, teamwork and other interpersonal skills.
• Townsville/Mount Isa – Queensland Youth Services - $128,592
  The Proud Warrior project will provide multi-agency intervention for primarily Indigenous young people who are at risk of disengaging from school, young people from low socio-economic households, and cases where young people are known, or their family is known, to police.
• Mount Isa – Save the Children trading as 54 Reasons - $300,000
  The ‘Back to Community’ reintegration program will provide rights-based, trauma-informed, culturally responsive throughcare support for young people whose home country is Mount Isa, Doomadgee or Mornington Island when leaving the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre.
• Hervey Bay – Marigurim Yalaam Indigenous Corporation for Community Justice - $298,980
  A Rites of Passage framework supported intensively over six weeks leading to peak experience Rites of Passage camp and for six weeks after the camps. Ongoing opportunities to access culturally relevel support.
• Woorabinda – Yiliyapinya Indigenous Corporation - $300,000
  A neuroscience-informed program for Aboriginal 10 to 18-year-olds on bail in Woorabinda, whose needs cannot be met by mainstream or alternative education and training programs.
• Logan – Youth Off The Streets - $293,500
  Targeted and evidence-based interventions which caters for two main groups, young people leaving detention and returning to the community, and young people who need to re-engage with education.  Cultural groups in Logan who will benefit from the program include First Nations, Pasifika and African communities.
• Toowoomba – Adam Wenitong - $142,483
  An intensive 30-week immediate response for re-offending youth including seven-month cultural project with cultural mentoring and connection to the First Nations community.
• Toowoomba – Raw Impact - $300,000
  Cultural connection over an intensive period of seven weeks for at-risk young people, with the option of ongoing engagement in meaningful cultural activities and projects that support the rejuvenation of native title land at the Yumba.
• Goondiwindi – Winangali Infusion - $300,000
  ‘The Block’ provides young people in Goondiwindi, and in the New South Wales border towns of Boggabila and Toomelah with a safe and supervised community hub for pro-social opportunities, cultural education, recreational activities and more.

Media Contact: Scott Chandler - 07 3719 7339