Community grants help tackle youth offending in Toowoomba, Goondiwindi

• Projects in Toowoomba and Goondiwindi will share in more than $740,000 in funding under the Palaszczuk Government’s Community Partnership Innovation Grants.
• In Toowoomba, Indigenous mentor Adam Wenitong will deliver an intensive program for young offenders while Raw Impact will engage at-risk young people in intensive cultural connection.
• In Goondiwindi, Winangali Infusion will deliver ‘The Block’ project, which will provide a safe and supervised community hub.
• 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 projects in Toowoomba and Goondiwindi are among 12 new projects to receive a Community Partnership Innovation Grant to tackle youth offending.

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.

Indigenous mentor Adam Wenitong will receive almost $143,000 to deliver an intensive 30-week program for young people who have reoffended. It will include a seven-month cultural project that provides cultural mentoring and connection to the First Nations community.

Raw Impact will receive $300,000 to deliver their project, which will see at-risk young people engage in an intensive period of cultural connection over seven weeks, with the option of ongoing cultural activities and projects that support the rejuvenation of native title land at the Yumba.

Winangali Infusion will receive $300,000 to deliver ‘The Block’ project, which will provide 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 and recreational activities.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Youth Justice Leanne Linard:

"The Palaszczuk Government continues to listen and act on youth crime.

“Local communities are often the first to see when a young person disconnects from family, stops attending school or shows anti-social behaviour, all of which are indicators that the young person may engage in criminal behaviour.

“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 enable grass roots organisations to work with local young people to stop offending before it starts or reduce offending and make a real difference to their lives.

“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.

"I am looking forward to seeing the results each of these organisations achieve through their respective projects."

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.
• Cairns – Selectability Ltd - $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 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.

Media Contact: Scott Chandler - 3719 7339