Grants help Cairns groups tackle youth offending

• Two projects aimed at addressing youth offending in Cairns will share in more than $550,000 in funding under the Palaszczuk Government’s Community Partnership Innovation Grants.
• Selectability will deliver an after-hours outreach and mentoring program while Australian Training Works Group will provide work readiness courses.
• In total, 12 projects in communities across Queensland will share in more than $3 million in funding in the second round of the grants program.
• The local projects complement the wide range of government programs and initiatives aimed at tackling the complex causes of youth crime.

Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard today announced that two Cairns projects are among 12 new projects to receive a Palaszczuk Government Community Partnership Innovation Grant to tackle youth offending.

Selectability will receive almost $260,000 to deliver 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 support services.

Indigenous group training organisation Australian Training Works Group will receive almost $300,000 to provide work readiness courses and build young people’s skills for the workplace, including communication, teamwork and other interpersonal skills.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Youth Justice Leanne Linard:

“Local communities are often the first to see indicators that young people are disengaging and are at risk of engaging in anti-social behaviour or offending.

“When I have met with local community groups, they have told me that they want to work with the government and put their local experience and knowledge to good use to help divert young people from crime.

“The Palaszczuk Government’s Community Partnership Innovation Grants provides funding to enable them to do just that.”

Quotes attributable to Member for Cairns Michael Healy:

“I welcome the funding being provided to local Cairns organisations Selectability and Australian Training Works Group.

“Selectability’s project will build on the success of the highly successful Fire Project, which operated in Cairns last year and did a fantastic job diverting young people off the streets and away from crime. It will provide weekly after-hours diversionary activities around Earlville and Edmonton.

“ATWG will provide skilling and work readiness courses to help young people transition into work. We know that one of the best ways to help divert young people from crime is to give them the skills they need to get and keep a job.

“There is no quick fix, no silver bullet to addressing youth crime and it’s essential that government and non-government agencies are working together to get the best possible outcome.

“The Premier 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.

“In Cairns, this additional funding will be used to expand intensive case management and the Transition to Success program and provide new services such as early action groups and intensive bail support.”

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

Other 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.
• 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 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 which includes intensive support for young people over six weeks before attending a Rites of Passage camp, followed by another six weeks of assistance.
• 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 young people, including a seven-month cultural project that will provide 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