Grant for project targeted at tackling youth offending in Woorabinda

• A new project in Woorabinda will receive $300,000 in funding under the second round of the Palaszczuk Government’s Community Partnership Innovation Grants
• Yiliyapinya Indigenous Corporation will undertake the project aimed at Aboriginal 10-to-18-year-olds whose needs cannot be met by mainstream or alternative education and training programs.
• 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 a Woorabinda project is one of 12 new projects to receive a Palaszczuk Government Community Partnership Innovation Grant to tackle youth offending in Queensland.

Yiliyapinya Indigenous Corporation will receive $300,000 to deliver 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.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Youth Justice Leanne Linard:

“The Palaszczuk Government is listening to the community and acting on youth crime.

“A comprehensive set of measures aimed at targeting serious repeat offenders, tackling the complex causes of youth crime and supporting community safety is currently being rolled-out.

“This includes an additional $100 million investment in programs proven to make a difference in diverting young people from crime.

“We know there is no quick fix, no silver bullet to fix youth crime and government and non-government organisations and the wider community have a role to play.

“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.

“I congratulate Yiliyapinya Indigenous Corporation on receiving a grant in this round of our Community Partnership Innovation Grants and I look forward to seeing the results of the project.”

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 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 which includes intensive support for young people over six weeks before attending a Rites of Passage camp, followed by another six weeks of assistance.

• 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