Victorian Programs for Young Indigenous People 'At Risk'

• NCJ Number: 194157
• Author(s): Anthony Lovett; Kerry Stringer; Lynne Parker
• Date Published: October 2001
• Length: 8 pages
• Corporate Author: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Conference Material
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: This paper was presented at the Best Practice Interventions in Corrections for Indigenous People Conference held in 2001; see NCJ-194158-162 for additional papers. Downloaded 02/05/2002

Annotation

This paper examines the indentification of young Indigenous individuals who are at risk of entering the juvenile justice system, the provision of additional support to young Indigenous individuals, and the appointment of Koori Justice Workers in each of the three Victorian juvenile justice custodial centers.

Abstract

In the attempt to reduce the number of young Indigenous people entering the juvenile justice system of Victoria, Australia, this paper, presented at the Best Practice Interventions in Corrections for Indigenous People Conference held in 2001, focused on an educational initiative for Indigenous youth resulting in 15 out of 19 participants returning to school. It presented factors relating to risk identification, what works strategies, representation of Koori young people in the juvenile justice system, and an overview of the Koori Justice Review. Within the Koori program, a significant trend was identified in the population, early school leaving, long periods of school refusal or strong indicators of being at risk of early school leaving. The Koori community initiated a pilot education replacement program in late 1998. This program was initiated for reasons that included: most early school leavers could not access any other agency, the return to the education system was in the best interest of the child, schools indicated support of a program, parents were supportive of such a program, early school leavers indicated they would attend the program, and the belief that all children have the right to an education. The paper presented the proposed program initiatives philosophies, aims, model (target group, referral process, model, and curriculum), and evaluation and supervision.