Support and services for young people before, during and after detention.
Our Strategic Plan consultations identified a need to highlight the services and supports needed to reduce young people’s contact with law and justice systems both prior to and post juvenile custody. Our Youth Justice Throughcare initiative is therefore the key initiative as outlined in our Strategic Plan (2021 – 2024).
Youth Action’s Youth Justice Throughcare Initiative uses a broad understanding of the word throughcare to refer to the supports and services young people need prior to, during, and following contact with the law and justice systems. The intention of this focus is to draw attention to the important work undertaken by services working with young people in supporting them to reduce their interactions with the law and justice systems. Additionally, we want to incorporate the voices of young people with lived expertise of the youth justice system to inform policy decisions that address the breadth of their experiences from early intervention through to community reintegration post custody.
The goal is to bring these diverse stakeholders together to determine advocacy and public campaigning solutions for increasing knowledge and funding for the issue of through-care for young people in conflict with the law. The Initiative will look to employ social marketing techniques as well as a strong focus on getting the voice of young people and First Nations people to be central to the solutions of the initiative. First steps will involve a series of workshops with the Sector on the following: education, information sharing, programs in community, detention centres and reintegration programs.
Steering Committee
The activities of Initiative are informed by the Steering Committee which is Co-Chaired by Miyay Birray. It meets regularly and is made up of representatives from a diverse range of services in the NSW Youth Sector.
Forums and Roundtables
Throughout 2021 and 2022, we started the Initiative by hosting roundtables with the Youth Sector and the Government and its departments. We sought feedback from the youth sector on what young people are experiencing and feedback about the key recommendations and reforms.
We then spoke to Government to inform policy makers about the experiences and views of young people alongside their recommendations for reform.
Lived Experiences of Young People
Young people’s lived experiences of law and the justice system are at the centre of the Throughcare initiative. We conduct regular consultations with young people to ensure their views and ideas are included in the recommendations we present to decision makers.
Partnership with Australian Theatre for Young People
Service providers in the youth sector they often state that more needs to be understood about the lived realities for young people in conflict with the law. This project draws upon from the success of the Australian Theatre for Young People’s Follow Me Home play about young people experiencing homelessness developed with the NSW Advocate for Young People in 2017.
We received a grant from the Vincent Fairfax Foundation to work with the Australian Theatre for Young People to develop a creative component for the inclusion of young people’s lived experiences. Youth Action and the Australian Theatre for Young People have commissioned Aboriginal playwright Hannah Belanszky who will develop a script for a series of vignettes which represent the collective stories that young people have shared with us through our consultations. The stories will reflect the lived experience and stories that young people have told us. It will be performed as a professional reading by a group of young actors. If you would like more information about the event, please contact Kate Munro at kate@youthaction.org.au.
Get Involved
If you are a young person with lived experience or a service that supports them and would like to find out more information or be involved in the Throughcare initiative, you can contact Kate Munro at kate@youthaction.org.au.